My maternal grandfather's name was transcribed wrong in the 1939 register for England and Wales. Should have been Mawson but was transcribed as Manson. His parents and brother were on there so I searched for my grandfather without his surname and found it that way. This is why I never rely on just the transcript, I always look at the record itself
In one case in my family tree there are 2 brothers who have the exact same Mikael Ivanovich Ryabukha(Rabuka) who died 17 days from each other in Canada and were buried in 2 separate Cemetaries.
I found the census takers were most often the guilty party when it came to changing names! They spelled what they heard and left it as is. Even when family members lived in close proximity, if that member spoke better English they had a stronger chance of getting the name entered correctly. Currently working on one family that has at least ten variations of Koehler passed down through the years, ending in Kuller, Cole, Kell, etc.
Very true. My paternal grandfather was listed as a female in one census due to his second/nickname being Cruz. Similarly, I found different names for an aunt in my mother's side due to how peculiar her name was.
Same, family still has this problem to this day of people writing our last name as different variations of Golding, Godding, Goldening, Goldling, Goidi, etc.
I have some Kohlers in my tree and I have both Kohlr and Kohler as spellings. On another branch an entire generation of children went by their middle names, for example, Barbara Elizabeth Steinfort went by Lizzie or Elizabeth. Some generations on my French side are all named Joseph for the boys and Marie for the girls going by middle names.
I was researching a distant branch in my tree 10 years ago where the family left Canada and moved to Massachusetts by the 1880's. One of the children, Ida Deslauriers, eventually married a man named John Hoague. However, in most of the children's birth records, her maiden name had been listed as "Lacaresse" instead. I thought that was odd, but I dismissed the name discrepancy as a potential transcription error, given that everything else matched with other records and censuses. However, the couple divorced by 1922, and the wife and children suddenly disappeared after 1930. I tried everything that I could think of, and eventually came to the conclusion that maybe Ida returned to Canada with her children. It wasn't until one their descendants reached out to me years later and explained that Ida divorced John after she caught him with another woman. Following the divorce, Ida legally changed her surname, as well as her children's, from "Hoague" to "Lacaresse" in order to disassociate themselves from her ex-husband and mistress.
@@yoavmor9002 Sadly, we don't know why. I assumed she chose it because maybe she pronounced Hoague like hug (since she was French), and she opted for Lacaresse, but that's just me pulling at straws.
I’m the family history and genealogy person in my family. I have some ancestors from Sweden and Norway, so I know the Johann thing you mentioned. One thing I find fascinating is that when they immigrated, they changed their name a bit to make it easier for those around them, who wouldn’t know how to pronounce their birth names. I’m glad I found your channel! Thank you for the great tips!
Also, I spent 20 years searching for a Thomas Frank Bowling (known as Frank) from whom I inherited my maiden name. I finally sent off for the death of a Stephen Bowling and it turned out that he was our Thomas Frank! Even more so as he named himself Thomas even though his brother Thomas tragically died young. And his brother Hezekiah also called himself Frank after the tragic death of Stephen! No wonder I was confused. The reason for the name change I think is that Stephen was travelling with his brother Hezekiah who as a quack doctor selling very expensive cure-alls to rich people. He had to keep one step ahead of the police. Hezekiah only changed his name after his description was posted in the Police Gazette and his in-laws, also quacks were banged up in prison. Hezekiah had a string of pseudonyms preceded with the word Doctor. (There is a website devoted to quack doctors with some of the information.)
My Mexican grandma was named Rachelita and she had no middle name. Back in the 1960s she had a co-worker tell her she looked like a Connie. She went by that name till she died a few years back. She kept her legal name Rachelita. Always introduced herself as Connie. Everyone in the family called her that. It wasn't till I was a teenager that I found out her real name.
My great grandparents on my dad’s side, both died, leaving 6 boys in the care of her mother. Their last name was Greenberg. This GGma changed their last name to a Greene. She was not Jewish. Then she enrolled them in military school. My dad found out about this info in 1988, when his dad died. My dad had suffered a stroke 2 yrs prior, and he “forgot” to tell us when he got home. I discovered this when I joined ancestry and did the dna test to show I am Russian Jewish. Funny side note, my daughter is dating a man named Berg. I gave her my last name at birth, so if she marries him, she can be GreeneBerg!
In many cases in the early 1900s many French Canadians moved across the border to the US. To Americanize themselves they translated their French names to English. Desjardin became Gardner, Dubois became Wood, Courtemanche became Shortsleeves, often their trades became their surnames Taylor, and so on and on …. Interesting but a knowledge of French does help in researching.
Thank you, Amy! What is killing me is when someone is identified with different middle name initials throughout his life. That happens with the French Canadians I’m researching in Vermont.
Yes it happen alot but mostly last name example my langlais line come from a son of a digory sergent from Massachusetts Named Daniel sergent renamed Louis Philippe sergent some of his grand kid was listed as dit l'anglais (called l'anglais (the English) after a few dit l'anglais they drop the sergent and became just l'anglais . I have a lot of dit ( Roy dit Desjardins dit Lalancette (surgeon was his living craft so they nicknamed him with the name of one of is tool ) dit petit (called the small ect
And sometimes the cursive capital letter initials can look the same and can be hard to determine if you never see a full name spelled out. I, J, T, F can all appear to look the same. I will often check other names on the same Census page to compare letters, if possible, to hopefully clarify. But even then, it's not always possible. Not all enumerator had beautiful handwriting. Lol. (Not that I'm anyone to speak... I have HORRIBLE handwriting myself, and always typing everything anymore doesn't help at all. 🤦🏻♀️)
Searched for almost 20 years for the father of my 5th great grandfather Lewis Holland. A couple of years ago I found a deed where Anthony Van Pelt left a slave to Lewis Holland "for the good will and friendship I have for my son". I have since found a court minute entry for Lewis where he was first listed at Lewis Pelt, but Pelt was scratched out and Holland written above.
You're a Holland, You should be able to trace your family back to the Dukes of Holland. I have some Holland ancestors. The Van Pelts would be a bit harder. My GGgrandfather died and his widow remarried to a Schuster. German custom is for minor children to take the new husband's last name. I can't find anything Prior to Ernß Schönherr.
My great grandmother's name was Samantha but researching records I've come across spellings like Symantha and on one census record (1930) when she was living in my grandparents' household she was identified as Mattie
My problem with their name change was the lack of consistency. Some records give both surnames or switches them back and forth. My mom’s ancestors changed surname. Over the course of 70 years the surname went back and forth until it stabilized and the alias became the permanent new surname. In another case the alias never became permanent and in the last 100 years it disappeared completely.
I have an interesting family group in my tree. In 1840 a William HONEYBUNN married Susannah DAVIS. in the 1841 and 1861 censuses, they're using the surname VAUGHAN and in 1851 the variation VAUNE. Then in 1881 & 1891, Susannah is back to being listed as HONEYBUN. All the children appear to have also reverted/changed to HONEYBUN or HUNNYBUN.
My great grandfather was William or Willie in all records. That is how I think of him and talk about him and research him. I was talking to my mother about him and she asked "Are you talking about Old Bill Thompson?" hahaha I had never thought to look him up that way.
I had a similar situation, but in reverse. My grandmother's little brother Tommy died when he was quite young. She wrote about him in a memoir and she always referred to him as Tommy. When I found his death certificate and it had his name as "Thomas," it felt odd. Yes, I knew his name was Thomas, but seeing it spelled out like that just felt odd.
Name changes are quite common in my tree. I have two Uncle Walters( as I always knew them), one was born as "Toivo" and the other as "Waino" (both are of Finnish origin). Another uncle was born Kalle Josef, and then later in life was either Charles Joseph, or C.J., yet I only knew him as "Uncle Joe". My paternal Grandfather was born with one surname, changed to another before coming to the US (Changing of surnames during one's life was not uncommon in Finland at the time), then both truncated and altered the spelling of that surname after arrival in the states. As a side note, you also have to be a bit cautious about information provided by Find a Grave if its not on the gravestone itself. I've found errors in at least two. One was a three person grave that they listed as Father, Mother and Son, when I knew for a fact that they were siblings of my Dad that had died within a short time span of each other.
Exactly. Too many people use FindAGrave as a way to build a family tree (linking memorials of family members) and not as a research tool. Definitely need to evaluate what a memorial actually says!
after 30+ years of research I've seen it all. One of my lines was originally Dolton...but as time went on about 1/3 of the family switched to Dalton (probably tired of correcting folks). Also a real migraine generator is the lack of name creativity in families. For example I know of one old west fellow I'm related to who named one son Charles (died young) another Charles Christopher and another Christopher. Another ancestor had sons Cabel and Caleb, and daughters Nancy and Nancy Margaret. Another ancestor gave two sons the middle name Elmer and of course they both used the name on occasion. But more on point was my great grandfather who was born Claremont and went by Claude after becoming a cowboy (a better cowboy name?)...took me a couple years to figure that one out.
I once found several generations on ancestry where all the males were named Johan and they used the same set of middle names for 3 generations Johan Michael, Johan Valentin, Johan Georg.
My paternal grandfather used several names in the censuses over the years as well as in other documents and by people who knew him - Isaac, Isidore, Irving and his tombstone marker has Ike as his first name. Fun researching, never know what you will find!
I learnt about the same name in the family problem. John is a popular name, made worse by having two brothers called John in the same family. After doing a bit of research I learnt that the parents didn't always attend the christenings/baptisms, it was left to the person who took them to be baptised, who was probably called John. On another issue I couldn't find my great grandfather, his mother or his grandmother. A cousins husband found his birth cert and put it up on ancestry. He was born into a family of Smith's, there are no Smith's in the family. After much poking about I realised his gran had married a John Smith, nothing like making things even harder. I realised in the census that all her kids suddenly became Smith's. On my great grandfathers birth cert they did put the original surname instead of Smith. That was my opening to dig deeper. He was registered by his illiterate grandmother who had the sense to give him the previous family name, he was born out of wedlock, or maybe the registrar forced her to register him in the mother's maiden name, who knows. His mother did go on to marry his father, DNA proved that. Family research brings the detective out of you, and the annoyance when you keep hitting dead ends. The Irish side is even worse with records being burnt, written Latin in the churches and the movement of the Irish around the world. On one side I can only get back to my great-grandfather, on the other side my two X g grandfather.
So... for whatever reason, I recently found your channel. I'm VERY MUCH enjoying it, and getting some new tips. I've been trying to figure out where to describe my current problem ancestress. I think this os the best place, b/c obviously, it is with her name that I have the biggest issue. I don't know what came first. Finsing this family in the Census or obtaining this photo. I feel like I most likely already had the early Census records first, since they are easily found in 1860 and 1870. So, a great uncle gave me some family photos many, many years ago since I was interested in genealogy. He gave me these photos of folks who are not our direct ancestors, so perhaps he didn't feel as attached to them. But I love them. Took me a while to figure out who the younger girls were (teen sisters, and even tho they were actually identified on the back [SOOOOO incredibly useful amd priceless!!] with similar names in the family, it took somw time for things to make sense)... and the other was identified simply with her name. She was a bigger conundrum for a while. It is a beautiful photo of a beautiful young woman, 20-30's, late 19th century. Doesn't narrow things down too much. So, I finally determined this lady, Kate Rose, is my great grandmother's great aunt. The other inage of the girls are her neices whose father had gone west (Indiana), around the time of the Civil War. The rest of the family have all been in NC. But, Kate had a different name as a child. Her parents called her Penina. I have no other connection to that name, and haven't seen it other places (except a few times recently on newspapers.com). Early on, I found Kate's headstone at the county pauper cemetery. Which I can't understand. But, she must have been estranged from her close relatives. Things match, so I am certain that Kate and Penina are one and the same. There are very few Roses in this county. So, one would expect that researching this family would be a breeze, right?? Alas... it has never been this simple. They appear to have created very few official records. Grrrr!! With the use of newspapers.com, I FINALLY some years ago found her married, several counties over as an older lady. She married a Rowe and her maiden name had been misspelled as "Roe" on that marriage record. 🙄🤦🏻♀️ So, I have found her late marriage and divorce. I have her in her parents' home as a child, and her later years married, and then her final resting place (of which newspapers.com has again shed SOME light on why she's there... but I don't totally understand the context and have to ask someone about it). I am missing the middle of her life. In fact, other than my direct ancestor, her sister, I am missing ALL of the rest of her sisters. One had married and left the house between 1870 and 1880 (presumably... but I guess she could have died). I can't tell if ALL the rest of the sisters died, or what. The only other one that is traceable is the brother who went west. There's like 5 or so missing daughters. There's no marriage records. In fact, I can't find Kate with a first marriage to explain her missing years. Looks like she went back to her maiden name to marry when she was older... if she WAS married prior. Some record somewhere she has either both names as initials, or she is listed as Kate P, which solidifies my conviction that she really IS the Penina in her parents' home. All the records make sense. Dates, father's name... I am convinced Kate is Penina. I fall into the huge frustration of not having the 1890 Census. I am bound and determined to figure out ALL of her life... but I have had such a problem tracing those missing... 20 or 30 years, or whatever it is.
Fun fact: Kate Rose Rowe's adult stepdaughter is also Kate Rowe. 🤪 well... she was prior to her marriage, at any rate, which does help with less confusion on most records. Also, happily, the Rowe's lived in a different county from where my Kate grew up.
Also... I DO generally use Family Search so I can do my research from the comfort of home... when I need to find something that I either hope is on Ancestry or I have been sent a teaser to KNOW something is on Ancestry, I will go to my local library or camp out for hours/days at my local Family History Center. But, the last I looked, the FMC hadn't reopened since it shut for Covid. Guess it's time I run take a look at that again. Also, I guess I probably need to run to the state archives. I hate driving to Raleigh... but I guess I can try to make it a fun event and invite some other genealogy friends. I have only been the the state archives a couple of times in my life. I end up getting very lost and confused and haven't typically found much help with roadblocks there anyway. But, being wiser about genealogical research now than in years past, maybe it's time to make another effort.
And lastly... I AM trying to watch as many of your videos as I can to figure out ways around my roadblocks. I am totally enjoying all the well produced videos you put out. You are a WEALTH of information. Thank you! You speak well and don't rush things. Even tho, some videos I have to watch the same portion 10 times b/c I can't focus on what you are saying b/c my mind drifts to imagining how I'd conduct a new search myself for Miss Kate or others who stymie me. (I have a brick wall with her parents as well. trying to find them in the county where they grew up.)
My husband goes by his middle name. He was named after his father, but the middle name is changed. J.B. Denney is their name, but dad's was Buford, my husband's is Bruce. Mine's worse. Third marriage, kids from each of the first 2. Plus my maiden name, so that's four last names. Add to that the fact that I've changed my name entirely from the birth name and I'm one of those that the genealogists of the future will hate. I am the genealogist in our family so I've documented everything so those who study after me will have that information. Adoptions can be another name issue--my mom was a Musgrove at birth but was adopted by a married aunt when her parents died. So she's a Coan. And then her married name. Then, pile on top of all that, my birth last name was Brown and my grandfather married a Smith. With lots of James, Logan, and Lee first or middle names. Names are so much fun!
My paternal grandmother had a brother who, as far as we were aware, was called Harry. It wasn't until I got the birth certificate that I found his actual name was John Henry.
@@AmyJohnsonCrow indeed. My first cousin on my dad's side of the family was confused when I first referred to him by his actual name. She said she knew of a Harry but nobody with the name John Henry. I was so glad I'd got the proof 😁
Census takers coming up a family who was illiterate and could not spell their name had to spell the name as it sounds. That is also reason for name changes over the years. Was looking for a family that had a 's' on the end of their name. But the dialect tended to leave the 's' off so when the census taker did their name they filled it in without the 's.'
Brilliant tips. I've had quite a few problems with 19th century U.K. census, regarding misspelling of names on entry's. My 4x Gt Grandmothers 1st name was Tearney, baptism & marriage spelt correctly. However the names I came across which were all her...Tianna, Teniah, Tanuar, T & one just left blank.🤣 I did what you suggested & tracked these down using family members, place of birth, occupation etc...Thankyou for your help.🌸
Been dealing with worse in my family records in Carinthia, southern Austria, where there's a strong Slovene population that really didn't migrate for hundreds of years. Surname spellings show up with Austrian and Slovenian conventions (which vary), and frequent intermarriage means lots of common names, so individuals are often listed with alia surnames, which serve as a replacement from that point forward.
I use my "middle" name, we have only first names in Sweden. My son goes by his second first name, the first first name is like a family heritage name. So there are many people that are not using the first first name.
I know how tough that is too Figure my Great Grandfather out even what his name, was who he was, tracing him back to Sweden and when I was looking to figure it out it was before computers and Ancestry It took 30 years to figure out he changed his name 4 times, birth dates 3 different dates and the only thing I had to go on was his obit had 2 sisters their names was changed 3 times had to find their family’s and about $15,000 to find out because I fallowed the leads across the United States. Too me it was all worth it. I had my dad put a marker at his dad’s head stone, Parents of and him 2 brothers name and birth and when my dad put a stone for himself and mom to put my name and my siblings’ parents of, in another cemetery. Now, I also change my name I put my birth name and my present name where I was born and when I pass the place and date of death both my parents name of myself and my wife. Our children’s name Date and place of birth on the back of the stone. and on top my Grandchildren their birth date and place of birth as the stone is a bench. on the stone at the same lot in the Cemetery were this great grandfather changed his name so many times and my grandparent are also berried. There will be no hunting, like I did! The older ones saw that I was very determined over the years that a lot of the original pictures I ended up with but I never figured back then I wouldn’t get any of the original pictures, I bought my wife a 35mm camera and made copies of the originals and now I have 40,000 images on my computer 50 albums and 25 3 ring binders of research paper and documents family gave to me.
You just read my mind...I've been trying to find my ggpa Shannon and he goes by 2 different names and it's been so frustrating to find him in census after 10y, then after my gma was enrolled in school at 6. I'm at a walk. Thank you for this video. I'll try this. I'm at a loss otherwise in 1927, he is just lost.
My dad was born Eugene William Kinsland but as an adult he went by the name Eugene or Gene Hoshell. Hoshell was the surname of his mother's first husband. My dad passed away in March 2022 and his death certificate reads Eugene Hoshell. His mother's maiden name was Koch pronounced coke. My mother was born Margaret Ruth Landrum, her family called her Ruth but after she moved to California and remarried she went by the name Marge. Her father was William Leonard Landrum often listed as Leonard Landrum but everyone called him Bud. His sister Florence didn't like her first name bcuz they had a pet cow by that name so she called herself Penny bcuz of her auburn hair and her sister Velma we called Wilma. What's even crazier is that their mother was Arpie Patons who had a sister named Artra Parsons their mother Mary Maiden divorced her first husband William H Parsons and married William Landrum who had 2 sons Wiiiam Franklin "Frank" Landrum and Thomas Landrum. Frank married his stepsister Arpia and Thomas married their other stepsister Artra . Both girls were underage but their mother gave them permission to marry. Btw my maiden was Hoshell when it should have been Kinsland. Neither of my parents, both deceased, ever shared much about their childhood or their family and I never got to meet any of them except my mother's Aunt Velma who raised my mother from birth til the age of 13. That's when she went to live with her dad, whom she thought was her uncle and his wife who was not her biological mother. Her biological mother lived with her parents when she gave birth to my mom and was told that she could not bring another child into their home as she already had 1 child so she left my mother at the hospital.
I feel sorry for anyone in the future who tries to trace me. 1. Named after BOTH grandmother's. 2. Due to there being other relatives with the same as first name and to designate me from the other grandmother, I have a nickname that was called by. 3. When I applied for my very 1st social security card, the lady at the bank asked what name I wanted on there. She knew my nickname. Like any 9-10 year old child, I chose my nickname. (did not like 1st name) So before I graduated high school, I had to have it changed with my proper name due to joining the military. 4. In school, my proper name was used until the 9th grade. When I entered the 9th grade, the school counselor asked what name would I prefer to go by because he heard my mother using my nickname. It a new school and area, I chose to go by a name that I was comfortable with, which was my nickname. At graduation, knowing the complications that it could cause later in life, put my proper name on the diploma, with nickname in parentheses. 5. Now married with a different last name. I have been trying to document all this in my genealogy papers so hopefully prayer fling nobody gets confused later in life. Thank you for all the wonderful information you give us to help us to become better genealogist.
I have an even more bizarre name issue. I have an ancestor who emigrated to America and, before his wife and daughter arrived to join him, skipped town and resurfaced in North Dakota under a different name except on a few official documents (citizenship papers). He remarried (while his 1st wife was still alive and not divorced!) and, luckily, his wife’s probate announcements used both last names, or I’d never have figured everything out.
Dealing with alternative spellings of my french and Scandinavian ancestors has been more difficult than my British ancestors cause I'm an English language speaker. Eg. Jernou to Janoux or Guihot to Guillot.
My mother's family went by a different surname in a census. My paternal grandfather was accidentally listed as a female. Rumor has it the name of one of my ancestor's was actually longer. Aside from merely looking up names, I found myself looking up history and Spanish naming customs.
In early days when many people were illiterate they did not know how to spell their names. Also, enumerators were little better, my brother was an experienced genealogist who discovered 14 variations on our surname! Another issue can be the way names were written. I discovered that the birthplace of an ancestor seemingly appeared in the Register as Paisley in Scotland ( 2 generations of the family thought this was the case) but by reading further through the 1837 Register and comparing the writing realised that the birthplace was in fact, Staveley in Cumberland! The florid Copperplate writing was the reason for the mistaken interpretation.
I had a headache with one of my 2x great grandfathers changing his ‘surname.’ My 2x great grandfather was George Nix and changed his name to George Nix Parker. I couldn’t find him until a DNA cousin contacted me and informed me of this…what a pain lol I don’t think I would of found George if it wasn’t for our DNA
@@AmyJohnsonCrow this all came about, I feel, because George left his first wife for another lady. George had 9 children with my 2x great grandmother then left her and had another 4 children under the surname ‘Parker’. After my 2x great grandmother died George then married this lady and lived happily ever after.
It is family knowledge that my 2x ggrandfather changed his surname from Seger (different spellings from different relatives) to Olson when he came from Sweden to Chicago, Illinois in 1885. His 1st name is either Carl or Karl, and middle name is Wilhelm, but shows up as William on 1910 census. What a nightmare! I’ve been trying to unravel his information for over a decade! Brick wall!
I have a friend whose great grand father came to this country under one name and changed it when became a citizen and the ggf changed his name by one letter to fraudulent marry another woman. Been helping her look it up
My ancestor told his family he changed his surname to avoid hanging,, There are records for him in his assumed name starting in 1864 till his death in 1921 , but there are no records for him in his claimed birthname or the assumed name before he was 21-22 years old. The family he claimed had no one die or disappear in the correct year range.
It happened to me in 1650 a Austrian ancestor used his first name hieronimus (meaning Jerome) when he migrated to east of France during the 30 years war for rebuilding east of France in beneficiation of a "golden visa" for expert builders. He settled the family with some hieronimus migrating to USA but now that I need to investigate Tyrol part of Austrian, I m not having family name to go further down.
What happens when someone has come from a completely different name (first and last) coming over from another country and their birth date is also different?
I would look more closely to make sure it's actually the same person. Look at things like who he or she is associating with. (Can you identify other family members?) Look at a wide range of records, including church/religious records, court records, and different kinds of newspapers.
My one (possible) relative’s name was James Junior Hart, but in the 1950 census he is listed as James G Hart. His brother’s, Osmond, name looks like it was written as Oswald. The ages add up and the location does as well, but I’m concerned he could be a different person. Could it just be the Census Takers error? Something else? Could it be the wrong people? Anything helps :)
It could be the enumerator misheard the name. I can easily imagine someone saying their name is "James J. Hart," but it's heard as James G. Hart. The important thing is to look at *all* of the information on the record -- the age, birthplace, etc. -- and see how it all fits together.
I have a priest and a nun in my family tree that changed their names. My grandfather was orphaned at three and lived with his uncle. He changed his name to Joe Johnson and became a dirt track race car driver known as “Sucide Joe Johnson”. In 1924, he named his son, my father Joseph Charles Johnson. During WW II, in the Army he legally changed his name to Joseph Charles Johnson. Now the family is trying to figure out who is junior and who is senior. All of this because no one would go to see someone named Benjamin Harrison Clagg race cars in the 1920’s. Why are there no legal records of name change?
I think most everyone has had this issue. My families name was Saunders in England and switched to Sanders when they came across the pond. Presumably they just didn’t spell it right at immigration. Except one dude, pretty sure he was born and Alfred, immigrated and magically was Charles Frederick for a few decades, switched back to Alfred 1920 and then died a Charles. DNA is helping me piece it together albeit slowly. Matched DNA to a sister so I know it’s the right guy. Just infuriating. If there’s an afterlife, totally looking that dude up first.
My great grandfather Stephen Brannen, lived in Maine with his wife and 7 daughters. He deserted them and went west. He did not divorce the 1st wife.... some where along the way he changed his name to Stephen St. Clair (why? who knows) In PA he met and married Mary Murphy who was 16 and he was 36. They moved to Michigan. His birthdates on records are anywhere between 1836-1842. My mother had gotten a great deal of information about this thru Civil War pension records back in the 1980's!!!! so I was aware of the name change. He was quite a skallywag! It is a challenge to work with the name ST. CLAIR. It's alphabetizweed incorrectly, sometimes it's only CLAIR or ST, Sinclair is also an option but I have yet to find anyone of those. I've been searching him for almost 15 years. Still finding things. :)
Oh I feel for you! My great grandfather Alfred Drew deserted from the British army in 1899 in India. He married? an Indian woman (don’t know name) and had two children. At some point he became William John Smith OR John William Smith. Widowed with two sons they returned to England in the early 20’s. I can’t find him until the 1939 census where the name is misspelled Shimt. How do you misspell Smith 😂! Three men with huge gaps in their lives. I can’t find them on passenger lists perhaps because of the boys’ mixed race status? He was apparently a railway inspector in India but no records there that I can find. My great uncle trained as a watch repairman, nothing. So frustrating!
My 4th great grandfather, who was most likely formerly enslaved, was Henry Hobbs but he possibly went by the name “Henry Bowden” from 1870-1880, his wife was Laura and had a daughter named Della J. For the longest time I couldn’t find him in the 1870 and 1880 Census. I decided to look in the 1880 Census for him with the mindset that he may be under a different name. I ended up finding a household with the names “Henry Bowden” “Laura Bowden” and a “Dillie J Bowden.” The ages were about right, and Henry knew how to read and write and in this Census, this Henry knew how to do so! Right next door was a white man named “William Bowden.” I was able to find Henry Bowden in the 1870 Census and I found Henry Bowden living in the same household as this white William Bowden. I think I’m on the right track here!
My Uncle Bill (my godfather) was really a George. But because he there was a George at his workplace, he changed to Bill and it stuck. I am so glad my Dad told me this!
Yes I discovered this. I have been looking for my 3X great grandma in Baltimore Maryland Virginia Gray. I discovered she was going a lot of the times by the nickname Jennie.
My great-grandfather Daniel Husted became Daniel Bowker ( alleged by another relative)around 1880. No real explanation😊. I was at a Genealogy convention and asked how to prove this and the 2 leaders looked at each other and said “I don’t know”.
What about when ancestors married a cousin, and by birth; both spouses have the same surname. Was it common for women to change their last name on records in instances like this? I've encountered several very distant ancestors in situations like this, its always a shock when I notice the husbands last name is the same as the wife's fathers surname. Then it gets real confusing when the wife begins using an alternate surname on records, and no subsequent marriages are found.
Many Scottish Highlanders who spoke Gaelic found that their names were changed when they arrived at Ellis island in the United States because no one could decipher the Gaelic spelling.
Names were not "changed" at Ellis Island. The passenger list was created at the port where the passengers embarked. Once they arrived at Ellis Island, there were translators for numerous languages. The customs officials just looked to see if the passenger's name (at told to them) matched the list. Even if there were some mix-up, the Ellis Island officials did not say, "This is the name you're going to be known as in America." After settling in, our immigrant ancestors sometimes adapted their surname to something that sounded "more American" or was easier for their American neighbors and co-workers to pronounce. But this was something they chose to do; it was not a name changed forced upon them by Ellis Island officials.
In terms of recording them in my family tree? I go with the spelling that seems to be most common for that person. (Of course, in my notes I write it down as it appears in the record I'm looking at.) If there are spelling differences that wouldn't be obvious (like the surnames Tshudi and Judy for the same person), I'll add an "alternate name."
Me in my genealogy I had an ancestor who had similar situation on some research I had Marie Fortin other Marie Edith Fortin other Marie labranche. So I had hard time so I asked help and some one found a baptism act under a Marie illigitime (illigitimate ) her god father was a labranche her god mother was a widow of a Fortin. So when I searched for the other act I found the source for Edith was actually a Mary dite Fortin (called Fortin) (if I'm not mistaken it's was et wedding act ) et death was Marie forti. Her husband sépulture act was named as Marie labranche so all the name matched the time frame also match
I just found out that my great grandfather changed his first AND last name completely. We could never figure out why we couldn't trace our family back before him, and now I uncovered the truth. He was forced into an arranged marriage in 1910 as a child and later changed his name when him and my great grandmother had their first child together 20 years later. I found this out by finding their marriage license and noticing the husband's name was not my great grandfather's name. Which led me to find his census records and the date he started going by his new name. This has been completely shocking to my family. I don't know if he changed his name because at that time families that engaged in arranged marriages were being cracked down on legally and it was his way to protect his parents, or if he despised his parents and wanted a new name.
On all the census returns that were written down by the enumerator my great grand mothers name is written as Mary Ann , The one return that was filled out by my great grand father he has written her name as Marion . He must have retained his thick Irish accent long after me migrated
Take a trip to the USA on a ship and when you are going through immigration they put down the name they thought they heard. Happened to my ancestors. Then there was my dad, that his dad divorced when he was under 6 years old and then Grandma remarried but my step grandfather never adopted dad, Dad assumed his stepdads name and went through school, WW2 and good portion of his life using the assumed name. Had to legally get it changed when he wanted to go on a trip for WW2 veterans to Europe and needed a passport. Funny side note; I became a passport acceptance agent at the Post office for 28 years, after that all occurred.
Spelling “changes” are common. When you have a population with a high percentage of illiteracy, you’re going to see numerous ways of spelling a name. Spelling of names didn’t become more standardized until the late 1800s or even later.
I'm doing Portuguese research in Madeira going back to the mid 1400's and found out that children are birth are given any middle and last name the parents wanted to name them. Usually it follows some pattern but not always. So brothers and sisters have different last names. Sometimes the boys will have the same middle and last names and the girls will have another set of middle and last names. Sometimes they are named after a parent or grandparent. Then other times they are named a unique name. Their father or mother can have a totally different name than them. The only way you can find them is the fact that they have the same parents. But then there is the problem of divorce or death of a spouse and remarriage. It is quite challenging.
That's a pretty clear example of different names, as they pertain to first names. I'm researching a great aunt, whose full first names according to her baptism certificate was Marie Blanche Irene. The limited information to date seems to indicate she was known as Irene by her family of origin. There is a gap between as record indicating her as Irene in 1942 and marriage record that turns up in 1955 where she is called Irene Dallaire dit Mayer. (Dallaire is our family surname). Mayer is nowhere in any of our family history. "dit" in French Canadian culture translated as "called". Any idea on why someone's last name might change, other than marriage?
My understanding of dit names is that they were applied to a family, not an individual, and that the usage had died out in French Canada by the late 1800s. This is not an area that I do a lot of research in; I would suggest contacting perhaps the Quebec Family History Society or find a researcher who specializes in French-Canadian genealogy to help you sort that out.
My ancestor Michel Gautron dit LaRochelle came to Quebec from LaRochelle France in the 1600's. They dropped the Gautron and my maiden name was LaRochelle.
My ancestors were a couple with 2 children from the wife's 1st marriage and 3 children from her 2nd marriage. The couple and 5 kids all travelled to the USA together. I don't believe that there was an adoption procedure anywhere, for the first 2 children. I think that they all just took their new Father's last name.That way, the first 2 kids, just disappeared from Europe and were re-born in a way, in the USA. I had never imagined that 'divorce' was possible, in any way at that time, but it happened, because they officially married in Germany. They also officially, openly, applied to leave their home town with those 5 children. Since many Europeans left at the same time, it is possible that the true Father of the 2 firstborn children followed them to the USA. It seems like that whole town left and re-settled in their own new small town in the USA. They could all use the same non-English language. The kids learned both languages in school. As usual, Ancestors drive me crazy. By the way, they all changed their last name to a different spelling, so that the first 2 kids completely disappeared a second time and of course, they all changed their first names to the English version. So, then they all had a new identity. It makes you wonder. Then they never talked about it again,so there are no family stories. I have to re-think the whole thing because I don't know for sure, which of those kids were truly related to the Father, the 2nd husband, in that family. Another family didn't want their sons to be sent to any more European wars amongst the Royals of Europe. They also didn't run from military service, as others did, but formally applied with officials to leave the country, as a family. Whew! Someone in the family married a man in the USA, from Germany, officially a wanderer, with no home, nor business or profession.He left without applying for permission to leave. He is listed as a man avoiding military service after having been drafted. In the USA he was a plumber, forever in one location, with his own home and my ancestor, his wife. I found a happy photo of them. Talk to older relatives and write things down. It helps to get these hints just like the ones you got in this video.
The same concepts apply. Look at how else you can identify them. Who are they associating with? What are the facts that you know about them, aside from their name? Go beyond just census records and vital records, and think about all of the different types of records you could find. Focus first on where you know they were living in the US and look for all of the records you can there before you try to make the leap to another country.
How do you handle multiple Fathers - My Mother married again, all the kids but me werer adopted. IN my case I have 2 kids from first marriage and 1 from current .. all in one tree?
What about when they changed modified their surname. My 2nd great grandpa surname was Obidiah Ware and I have not found him on any census or any other record. His birth info is from a family Bible. I did however find a George O. Bulware with family relationships, ages and names like the ones I have. Additionally it, if correct, gets me back one generation. Also it matches the family story about him being an only child. My problem is I don't know how to prove that I am correct without a marriage record. I looked in SC and the marriage records for that place and time have been destroyed. How do I reconcile the 2 people?
Keep doing what you're doing! Find what you can on both men. Look at the other facts about their life (family members, residence, occupations, etc.) Reconcile things that don't agree. (Evaluating what you've found and decide which is more accurate.) One quick tip about the family Bible: compare the date it was printed against the events written in it. (Hopefully the Bible still has a title page and it has a publication date.) For example, if the Bible was printed in 1920, but George Ware/Bulware was deceased by then, he couldn't have been the one to have recorded his name. It's possible whoever wrote that entry in the Bible didn't remember it correctly.
Is there any way to check on name changes orchestrated by Customs or Immigration officers at a port of entry. My great grandfather had a long Russian name on his entry into England, but nobody there could pronounce it or write it so they assigned him the name of Jphn Brown.
I can't speak for England, but if their immigration/entry system was like the one in the United States, his name was not changed there. There's a long-standing myth that names were changed at Ellis Island. In fact, no names were changed there. The passenger lists were created at the port when they boarded the ship, and there were translators for numerous languages. The person would tell the customs official his or her name and he would look on the list (the one created at the point of origin) to find their information. The name change happened later, when immigrants (especially those with "difficult" sounding names) would adopt a more Anglo-sounding name.
The main cause was listed as "cerebral paralysis," with a secondary cause of "locor motor ataxia" [sic]. (It should be locomotor ataxia, which is a failure of muscle coordination.)
I thought this was going to be about people like my great grandfather who was adopted by his stepfather. Fortunately, I have a copy of his birth certificate so I know what his birth name was. Strangely he changed his middle name. I'm guessing he did this for his adopted father.
Wasn't there a burial place listed on the death certificate? There should have been along with the funeral home that prepared his body. More records to search. Check the edits on Findagrave, the middle name might have been known to direct descendants not in your line. I have personal information on many of my family members that isn't in the official records... He should have had an obituary as well listing his family members. Naming patterns have to be taken into consideration too.
As I mentioned, the cemetery was listed on the death certificate. There was no source for the middle name on the Find A Grave memorial. There is a whole host of records that could still be explored.
I am having a nightmare with mine as we have John David’s, Jack/John. William David and David Williams. I also have Hy’s and Henry’s. The John one goes 5 generations and not all have middle names. My other problem is I have a Julia Lancey on my tree. I think she was born in the 1740’s Kent England, but I can’t find anything earlier than her marriage to a Stroud Baker in about 1783. It is believed she is of Huegenot descent because of her surname. I can’t prove her birth details or her parentage to trace her back. I am housebound so can’t travel to the Huegenot society in London.
The surname has likely been spelled different ways in different records. Most surnames have been. Work your way back from what you know to what you don't. By that I mean, fully research each generation.
What you stated in the video was not a name change. you just verified information. A name change can be a totally different name or a single letter added or removed. In my family history I have both cases of added and removed a letter Downes (the E was added) and Browne (the E was removed) I was fortunate enough to have many cousins who found info on the Brown(e) line to date back to the 1500's. The Down(e)s only goes back to 1805 but there are literally thousands of Downs before 1805.
As I stated at the beginning, sometimes our ancestors "changed names" depending upon the situation. Genealogists can create obstacles for themselves when they don't explore these. If a researcher was focused only on "James" Marshman, they might easily have ignored the "Birney" Marshman death certificate. In my years of working with genealogists, I've seen that is a common thing for people to do.
The tombstone-maker chisseled the wrong year onto my Grandmother's stone,a mistake forever. I only know about it because my Mother told me the story, mwhen I was a child. It would have been too expensive to get a new stone. or haggle about it, but I kind of feel bad for my Grandmother. I don't know if she can rest in peace. So, even 'Find a Grave' folks don't know that until now. The years on the stones are not completely reliable. That's Life.
That's the fault of the person providing their name. I am known by Emy to my family, but I have NEVER given that name to anyone. My license, school records, married certificate, my passport and all my credit cards are under my "birth name"; Amelia. All documents found on ancestry are NEVER as Emy.
Giving someone the same name as their parent then calling them by their middle name is confusingly stupid. I'm glad my own parents ended such nonsense,
One of my GG Grandfathers is a dead end. The names on his death certificate aren’t his wife or children. For all I know they could be his neighbors. We have no clue who his parents were. There are no records of him before he moved to California. I’m guessing there’s a good chance that he changed his name when he moved to California as it was easy to do so at that time. 🤷♀️
I would try to find out more about the informant on his death certificate. My best tip for trying to move someone back to a new location is the research all you can about him where you have him. Who are his neighbors in California? (They could have been neighbors in the previous location.)
@@AmyJohnsonCrow Thanks! I never thought about looking up his neighbors before. I know where he was born as listed on his death certificate but there don’t appear to be any census records prior to California. *Grumble*
Names can also be misspelled! Check out this video for a way to find those records: ua-cam.com/video/iu0ABi-C3c4/v-deo.html
My maternal grandfather's name was transcribed wrong in the 1939 register for England and Wales. Should have been Mawson but was transcribed as Manson. His parents and brother were on there so I searched for my grandfather without his surname and found it that way. This is why I never rely on just the transcript, I always look at the record itself
Looking at the record itself is a great habit to have!
In one case in my family tree there are 2 brothers who have the exact same Mikael Ivanovich Ryabukha(Rabuka) who died 17 days from each other in Canada and were buried in 2 separate Cemetaries.
I found out that my ancestor Edward Kemp's wife, Ann (Buckenham) Kemp's birth name was actually Esther Ann Buckenham. She used Ann as her name.
Especially if it’s a unusual name.
I found the census takers were most often the guilty party when it came to changing names! They spelled what they heard and left it as is. Even when family members lived in close proximity, if that member spoke better English they had a stronger chance of getting the name entered correctly. Currently working on one family that has at least ten variations of Koehler passed down through the years, ending in Kuller, Cole, Kell, etc.
Very true. My paternal grandfather was listed as a female in one census due to his second/nickname being Cruz. Similarly, I found different names for an aunt in my mother's side due to how peculiar her name was.
Same, family still has this problem to this day of people writing our last name as different variations of Golding, Godding, Goldening, Goldling, Goidi, etc.
I have some Kohlers in my tree and I have both Kohlr and Kohler as spellings. On another branch an entire generation of children went by their middle names, for example, Barbara Elizabeth Steinfort went by Lizzie or Elizabeth. Some generations on my French side are all named Joseph for the boys and Marie for the girls going by middle names.
@@theharoldsshow I'm Belgian French on my maternal side. I agree, they're all Marie, Anne, or Joseph, even within the same family/generation!
@Cee I have seen those differences in that name, in this area of Georgia that I live in.
I was researching a distant branch in my tree 10 years ago where the family left Canada and moved to Massachusetts by the 1880's. One of the children, Ida Deslauriers, eventually married a man named John Hoague. However, in most of the children's birth records, her maiden name had been listed as "Lacaresse" instead.
I thought that was odd, but I dismissed the name discrepancy as a potential transcription error, given that everything else matched with other records and censuses. However, the couple divorced by 1922, and the wife and children suddenly disappeared after 1930. I tried everything that I could think of, and eventually came to the conclusion that maybe Ida returned to Canada with her children.
It wasn't until one their descendants reached out to me years later and explained that Ida divorced John after she caught him with another woman. Following the divorce, Ida legally changed her surname, as well as her children's, from "Hoague" to "Lacaresse" in order to disassociate themselves from her ex-husband and mistress.
Lol. That is so interesting. She must have been furious at him.
Why did she pick this brand new name instead of going back to her maiden name?
@@yoavmor9002 Sadly, we don't know why. I assumed she chose it because maybe she pronounced Hoague like hug (since she was French), and she opted for Lacaresse, but that's just me pulling at straws.
I’m the family history and genealogy person in my family. I have some ancestors from Sweden and Norway, so I know the Johann thing you mentioned. One thing I find fascinating is that when they immigrated, they changed their name a bit to make it easier for those around them, who wouldn’t know how to pronounce their birth names. I’m glad I found your channel! Thank you for the great tips!
I'm glad you're enjoying the channel! Yes, isn't it fascinating how our ancestors would change names like that.
Also, I spent 20 years searching for a Thomas Frank Bowling (known as Frank) from whom I inherited my maiden name. I finally sent off for the death of a Stephen Bowling and it turned out that he was our Thomas Frank! Even more so as he named himself Thomas even though his brother Thomas tragically died young. And his brother Hezekiah also called himself Frank after the tragic death of Stephen! No wonder I was confused. The reason for the name change I think is that Stephen was travelling with his brother Hezekiah who as a quack doctor selling very expensive cure-alls to rich people. He had to keep one step ahead of the police. Hezekiah only changed his name after his description was posted in the Police Gazette and his in-laws, also quacks were banged up in prison. Hezekiah had a string of pseudonyms preceded with the word Doctor. (There is a website devoted to quack doctors with some of the information.)
My Mexican grandma was named Rachelita and she had no middle name. Back in the 1960s she had a co-worker tell her she looked like a Connie. She went by that name till she died a few years back. She kept her legal name Rachelita. Always introduced herself as Connie. Everyone in the family called her that. It wasn't till I was a teenager that I found out her real name.
Rachelita. I like that name.
My great grandparents on my dad’s side, both died, leaving 6 boys in the care of her mother. Their last name was Greenberg. This GGma changed their last name to a Greene. She was not Jewish. Then she enrolled them in military school. My dad found out about this info in 1988, when his dad died. My dad had suffered a stroke 2 yrs prior, and he “forgot” to tell us when he got home. I discovered this when I joined ancestry and did the dna test to show I am Russian Jewish. Funny side note, my daughter is dating a man named Berg. I gave her my last name at birth, so if she marries him, she can be GreeneBerg!
Greene is Jewish? My GGG Grandmother’s maiden name was Greene and she was from Ireland.
In many cases in the early 1900s many French Canadians moved across the border to the US. To Americanize themselves they translated their French names to English. Desjardin became Gardner, Dubois became Wood, Courtemanche became Shortsleeves, often their trades became their surnames Taylor, and so on and on …. Interesting but a knowledge of French does help in researching.
You're so right! Having a familiarity with the languages spoken by your ancestors really helps your research.
I should write up a reference catalogue of all the FC names and translations that I’ve come across in the years that I’ve done genealogy 🤔
Thank you, Amy! What is killing me is when someone is identified with different middle name initials throughout his life. That happens with the French Canadians I’m researching in Vermont.
I’ve run into some that had two middle names. Maddening!
@@sallyintucson I have a Swedish ancestor that is Adelina Gustava Kristina.
Yes it happen alot but mostly last name example my langlais line come from a son of a digory sergent from Massachusetts
Named Daniel sergent renamed Louis Philippe sergent some of his grand kid was listed as dit l'anglais (called l'anglais (the English) after a few dit l'anglais they drop the sergent and became just l'anglais .
I have a lot of dit ( Roy dit Desjardins dit Lalancette (surgeon was his living craft so they nicknamed him with the name of one of is tool ) dit petit (called the small ect
And sometimes the cursive capital letter initials can look the same and can be hard to determine if you never see a full name spelled out. I, J, T, F can all appear to look the same.
I will often check other names on the same Census page to compare letters, if possible, to hopefully clarify. But even then, it's not always possible. Not all enumerator had beautiful handwriting. Lol. (Not that I'm anyone to speak... I have HORRIBLE handwriting myself, and always typing everything anymore doesn't help at all. 🤦🏻♀️)
Searched for almost 20 years for the father of my 5th great grandfather Lewis Holland. A couple of years ago I found a deed where Anthony Van Pelt left a slave to Lewis Holland "for the good will and friendship I have for my son". I have since found a court minute entry for Lewis where he was first listed at Lewis Pelt, but Pelt was scratched out and Holland written above.
That's a great find!
You're a Holland, You should be able to trace your family back to the Dukes of Holland. I have some Holland ancestors. The Van Pelts would be a bit harder. My GGgrandfather died and his widow remarried to a Schuster. German custom is for minor children to take the new husband's last name. I can't find anything Prior to Ernß Schönherr.
I love the informants on death certs. That little box is often a mine of information and can work both ways - you can trace daughters with it.
I managed to trace a marriage record for my great grandmother's sister through her death certificate 🙂
Yes! The informant's information is so important and too often overlooked!
My great grandmother's name was Samantha but researching records I've come across spellings like Symantha and on one census record (1930) when she was living in my grandparents' household she was identified as Mattie
My problem with their name change was the lack of consistency. Some records give both surnames or switches them back and forth. My mom’s ancestors changed surname. Over the course of 70 years the surname went back and forth until it stabilized and the alias became the permanent new surname. In another case the alias never became permanent and in the last 100 years it disappeared completely.
I have an interesting family group in my tree. In 1840 a William HONEYBUNN married Susannah DAVIS. in the 1841 and 1861 censuses, they're using the surname VAUGHAN and in 1851 the variation VAUNE. Then in 1881 & 1891, Susannah is back to being listed as HONEYBUN. All the children appear to have also reverted/changed to HONEYBUN or HUNNYBUN.
My great grandfather was William or Willie in all records. That is how I think of him and talk about him and research him. I was talking to my mother about him and she asked "Are you talking about Old Bill Thompson?" hahaha I had never thought to look him up that way.
I had a similar situation, but in reverse. My grandmother's little brother Tommy died when he was quite young. She wrote about him in a memoir and she always referred to him as Tommy. When I found his death certificate and it had his name as "Thomas," it felt odd. Yes, I knew his name was Thomas, but seeing it spelled out like that just felt odd.
Name changes are quite common in my tree. I have two Uncle Walters( as I always knew them), one was born as "Toivo" and the other as "Waino" (both are of Finnish origin). Another uncle was born Kalle Josef, and then later in life was either Charles Joseph, or C.J., yet I only knew him as "Uncle Joe". My paternal Grandfather was born with one surname, changed to another before coming to the US (Changing of surnames during one's life was not uncommon in Finland at the time), then both truncated and altered the spelling of that surname after arrival in the states.
As a side note, you also have to be a bit cautious about information provided by Find a Grave if its not on the gravestone itself. I've found errors in at least two. One was a three person grave that they listed as Father, Mother and Son, when I knew for a fact that they were siblings of my Dad that had died within a short time span of each other.
Exactly. Too many people use FindAGrave as a way to build a family tree (linking memorials of family members) and not as a research tool. Definitely need to evaluate what a memorial actually says!
after 30+ years of research I've seen it all. One of my lines was originally Dolton...but as time went on about 1/3 of the family switched to Dalton (probably tired of correcting folks). Also a real migraine generator is the lack of name creativity in families. For example I know of one old west fellow I'm related to who named one son Charles (died young) another Charles Christopher and another Christopher. Another ancestor had sons Cabel and Caleb, and daughters Nancy and Nancy Margaret. Another ancestor gave two sons the middle name Elmer and of course they both used the name on occasion. But more on point was my great grandfather who was born Claremont and went by Claude after becoming a cowboy (a better cowboy name?)...took me a couple years to figure that one out.
I once found several generations on ancestry where all the males were named Johan and they used the same set of middle names for 3 generations Johan Michael, Johan Valentin, Johan Georg.
Ouch!
Good info, thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
My paternal grandfather used several names in the censuses over the years as well as in other documents and by people who knew him - Isaac, Isidore, Irving and his tombstone marker has Ike as his first name. Fun researching, never know what you will find!
I learnt about the same name in the family problem. John is a popular name, made worse by having two brothers called John in the same family. After doing a bit of research I learnt that the parents didn't always attend the christenings/baptisms, it was left to the person who took them to be baptised, who was probably called John. On another issue I couldn't find my great grandfather, his mother or his grandmother. A cousins husband found his birth cert and put it up on ancestry. He was born into a family of Smith's, there are no Smith's in the family. After much poking about I realised his gran had married a John Smith, nothing like making things even harder. I realised in the census that all her kids suddenly became Smith's. On my great grandfathers birth cert they did put the original surname instead of Smith. That was my opening to dig deeper. He was registered by his illiterate grandmother who had the sense to give him the previous family name, he was born out of wedlock, or maybe the registrar forced her to register him in the mother's maiden name, who knows. His mother did go on to marry his father, DNA proved that. Family research brings the detective out of you, and the annoyance when you keep hitting dead ends. The Irish side is even worse with records being burnt, written Latin in the churches and the movement of the Irish around the world. On one side I can only get back to my great-grandfather, on the other side my two X g grandfather.
So... for whatever reason, I recently found your channel. I'm VERY MUCH enjoying it, and getting some new tips. I've been trying to figure out where to describe my current problem ancestress. I think this os the best place, b/c obviously, it is with her name that I have the biggest issue.
I don't know what came first. Finsing this family in the Census or obtaining this photo. I feel like I most likely already had the early Census records first, since they are easily found in 1860 and 1870.
So, a great uncle gave me some family photos many, many years ago since I was interested in genealogy. He gave me these photos of folks who are not our direct ancestors, so perhaps he didn't feel as attached to them. But I love them. Took me a while to figure out who the younger girls were (teen sisters, and even tho they were actually identified on the back [SOOOOO incredibly useful amd priceless!!] with similar names in the family, it took somw time for things to make sense)... and the other was identified simply with her name. She was a bigger conundrum for a while.
It is a beautiful photo of a beautiful young woman, 20-30's, late 19th century. Doesn't narrow things down too much. So, I finally determined this lady, Kate Rose, is my great grandmother's great aunt. The other inage of the girls are her neices whose father had gone west (Indiana), around the time of the Civil War. The rest of the family have all been in NC.
But, Kate had a different name as a child. Her parents called her Penina. I have no other connection to that name, and haven't seen it other places (except a few times recently on newspapers.com).
Early on, I found Kate's headstone at the county pauper cemetery. Which I can't understand. But, she must have been estranged from her close relatives. Things match, so I am certain that Kate and Penina are one and the same. There are very few Roses in this county. So, one would expect that researching this family would be a breeze, right?? Alas... it has never been this simple. They appear to have created very few official records. Grrrr!!
With the use of newspapers.com, I FINALLY some years ago found her married, several counties over as an older lady. She married a Rowe and her maiden name had been misspelled as "Roe" on that marriage record. 🙄🤦🏻♀️ So, I have found her late marriage and divorce.
I have her in her parents' home as a child, and her later years married, and then her final resting place (of which newspapers.com has again shed SOME light on why she's there... but I don't totally understand the context and have to ask someone about it).
I am missing the middle of her life. In fact, other than my direct ancestor, her sister, I am missing ALL of the rest of her sisters. One had married and left the house between 1870 and 1880 (presumably... but I guess she could have died). I can't tell if ALL the rest of the sisters died, or what. The only other one that is traceable is the brother who went west. There's like 5 or so missing daughters. There's no marriage records. In fact, I can't find Kate with a first marriage to explain her missing years. Looks like she went back to her maiden name to marry when she was older... if she WAS married prior. Some record somewhere she has either both names as initials, or she is listed as Kate P, which solidifies my conviction that she really IS the Penina in her parents' home. All the records make sense. Dates, father's name... I am convinced Kate is Penina.
I fall into the huge frustration of not having the 1890 Census.
I am bound and determined to figure out ALL of her life... but I have had such a problem tracing those missing... 20 or 30 years, or whatever it is.
Fun fact: Kate Rose Rowe's adult stepdaughter is also Kate Rowe. 🤪 well... she was prior to her marriage, at any rate, which does help with less confusion on most records. Also, happily, the Rowe's lived in a different county from where my Kate grew up.
Also... I DO generally use Family Search so I can do my research from the comfort of home... when I need to find something that I either hope is on Ancestry or I have been sent a teaser to KNOW something is on Ancestry, I will go to my local library or camp out for hours/days at my local Family History Center. But, the last I looked, the FMC hadn't reopened since it shut for Covid. Guess it's time I run take a look at that again.
Also, I guess I probably need to run to the state archives. I hate driving to Raleigh... but I guess I can try to make it a fun event and invite some other genealogy friends.
I have only been the the state archives a couple of times in my life. I end up getting very lost and confused and haven't typically found much help with roadblocks there anyway. But, being wiser about genealogical research now than in years past, maybe it's time to make another effort.
And lastly... I AM trying to watch as many of your videos as I can to figure out ways around my roadblocks. I am totally enjoying all the well produced videos you put out. You are a WEALTH of information. Thank you! You speak well and don't rush things. Even tho, some videos I have to watch the same portion 10 times b/c I can't focus on what you are saying b/c my mind drifts to imagining how I'd conduct a new search myself for Miss Kate or others who stymie me. (I have a brick wall with her parents as well. trying to find them in the county where they grew up.)
Hey, I just found your channel today. Good advice, a little bit of humor and more good advice. Great Job! I’ve subscribed.
I'm glad you enjoy it! Thanks for subscribing!
My husband goes by his middle name. He was named after his father, but the middle name is changed. J.B. Denney is their name, but dad's was Buford, my husband's is Bruce. Mine's worse. Third marriage, kids from each of the first 2. Plus my maiden name, so that's four last names. Add to that the fact that I've changed my name entirely from the birth name and I'm one of those that the genealogists of the future will hate. I am the genealogist in our family so I've documented everything so those who study after me will have that information. Adoptions can be another name issue--my mom was a Musgrove at birth but was adopted by a married aunt when her parents died. So she's a Coan. And then her married name. Then, pile on top of all that, my birth last name was Brown and my grandfather married a Smith. With lots of James, Logan, and Lee first or middle names. Names are so much fun!
My paternal grandmother had a brother who, as far as we were aware, was called Harry. It wasn't until I got the birth certificate that I found his actual name was John Henry.
I wonder how many people in his life knew his "actual" name!
@@AmyJohnsonCrow indeed. My first cousin on my dad's side of the family was confused when I first referred to him by his actual name. She said she knew of a Harry but nobody with the name John Henry. I was so glad I'd got the proof 😁
Census takers coming up a family who was illiterate and could not spell their name had to spell the name as it sounds. That is also reason for name changes over the years. Was looking for a family that had a 's' on the end of their name. But the dialect tended to leave the 's' off so when the census taker did their name they filled it in without the 's.'
Brilliant tips. I've had quite a few problems with 19th century U.K. census, regarding misspelling of names on entry's. My 4x Gt Grandmothers 1st name was Tearney, baptism & marriage spelt correctly. However the names I came across which were all her...Tianna, Teniah, Tanuar, T & one just left blank.🤣 I did what you suggested & tracked these down using family members, place of birth, occupation etc...Thankyou for your help.🌸
Been dealing with worse in my family records in Carinthia, southern Austria, where there's a strong Slovene population that really didn't migrate for hundreds of years. Surname spellings show up with Austrian and Slovenian conventions (which vary), and frequent intermarriage means lots of common names, so individuals are often listed with alia surnames, which serve as a replacement from that point forward.
I use my "middle" name, we have only first names in Sweden. My son goes by his second first name, the first first name is like a family heritage name. So there are many people that are not using the first first name.
I know how tough that is too Figure my Great Grandfather out even what his name, was who he was, tracing him back to Sweden and when I was looking to figure it out it was before computers and Ancestry It took 30 years to figure out he changed his name 4 times, birth dates 3 different dates and the only thing I had to go on was his obit had 2 sisters their names was changed 3 times had to find their family’s and about $15,000 to find out because I fallowed the leads across the United States. Too me it was all worth it. I had my dad put a marker at his dad’s head stone, Parents of and him 2 brothers name and birth and when my dad put a stone for himself and mom to put my name and my siblings’ parents of, in another cemetery.
Now, I also change my name I put my birth name and my present name where I was born and when I pass the place and date of death both my parents name of myself and my wife. Our children’s name Date and place of birth on the back of the stone. and on top my Grandchildren their birth date and place of birth as the stone is a bench. on the stone at the same lot in the Cemetery were this great grandfather changed his name so many times and my grandparent are also berried. There will be no hunting, like I did!
The older ones saw that I was very determined over the years that a lot of the original pictures I ended up with but I never figured back then I wouldn’t get any of the original pictures, I bought my wife a 35mm camera and made copies of the originals and now I have 40,000 images on my computer 50 albums and 25 3 ring binders of research paper and documents family gave to me.
You just read my mind...I've been trying to find my ggpa Shannon and he goes by 2 different names and it's been so frustrating to find him in census after 10y, then after my gma was enrolled in school at 6. I'm at a walk. Thank you for this video. I'll try this. I'm at a loss otherwise in 1927, he is just lost.
My dad was born Eugene William Kinsland but as an adult he went by the name Eugene or Gene Hoshell. Hoshell was the surname of his mother's first husband. My dad passed away in March 2022 and his death certificate reads Eugene Hoshell. His mother's maiden name was Koch pronounced coke. My mother was born Margaret Ruth Landrum, her family called her Ruth but after she moved to California and remarried she went by the name Marge. Her father was William Leonard Landrum often listed as Leonard Landrum but everyone called him Bud. His sister Florence didn't like her first name bcuz they had a pet cow by that name so she called herself Penny bcuz of her auburn hair and her sister Velma we called Wilma. What's even crazier is that their mother was Arpie Patons who had a sister named Artra Parsons their mother Mary Maiden divorced her first husband William H Parsons and married William Landrum who had 2 sons Wiiiam Franklin "Frank" Landrum and Thomas Landrum. Frank married his stepsister Arpia and Thomas married their other stepsister Artra . Both girls were underage but their mother gave them permission to marry. Btw my maiden was Hoshell when it should have been Kinsland. Neither of my parents, both deceased, ever shared much about their childhood or their family and I never got to meet any of them except my mother's Aunt Velma who raised my mother from birth til the age of 13. That's when she went to live with her dad, whom she thought was her uncle and his wife who was not her biological mother. Her biological mother lived with her parents when she gave birth to my mom and was told that she could not bring another child into their home as she already had 1 child so she left my mother at the hospital.
I feel sorry for anyone in the future who tries to trace me.
1. Named after BOTH grandmother's.
2. Due to there being other relatives with the same as first name and to designate me from the other grandmother, I have a nickname that was called by.
3. When I applied for my very 1st social security card, the lady at the bank asked what name I wanted on there. She knew my nickname. Like any 9-10 year old child, I chose my nickname. (did not like 1st name) So before I graduated high school, I had to have it changed with my proper name due to joining the military.
4. In school, my proper name was used until the 9th grade. When I entered the 9th grade, the school counselor asked what name would I prefer to go by because he heard my mother using my nickname. It a new school and area, I chose to go by a name that I was comfortable with, which was my nickname. At graduation, knowing the complications that it could cause later in life, put my proper name on the diploma, with nickname in parentheses.
5. Now married with a different last name.
I have been trying to document all this in my genealogy papers so hopefully prayer fling nobody gets confused later in life.
Thank you for all the wonderful information you give us to help us to become better genealogist.
I have an even more bizarre name issue. I have an ancestor who emigrated to America and, before his wife and daughter arrived to join him, skipped town and resurfaced in North Dakota under a different name except on a few official documents (citizenship papers). He remarried (while his 1st wife was still alive and not divorced!) and, luckily, his wife’s probate announcements used both last names, or I’d never have figured everything out.
Talk about using different names depending on the situation!
Dealing with alternative spellings of my french and Scandinavian ancestors has been more difficult than my British ancestors cause I'm an English language speaker. Eg. Jernou to Janoux or Guihot to Guillot.
Combine that with how an English language speaker would have written a French name that was spoken, and you could have a real mess on your hands!
My mother's family went by a different surname in a census. My paternal grandfather was accidentally listed as a female. Rumor has it the name of one of my ancestor's was actually longer. Aside from merely looking up names, I found myself looking up history and Spanish naming customs.
Very important to understand how surnames are structured in different cultures!
one of my ancestors changed his surname, took years of digging to to figure it out
In early days when many people were illiterate they did not know how to spell their names. Also, enumerators were little better, my brother was an experienced genealogist who discovered 14 variations on our surname!
Another issue can be the way names were written. I discovered that the birthplace of an ancestor seemingly appeared in the Register as Paisley in Scotland ( 2 generations of the family thought this was the case) but by reading further through the 1837 Register and comparing the writing realised that the birthplace was in fact, Staveley in Cumberland! The florid Copperplate writing was the reason for the mistaken interpretation.
I just laughed out loud at “so many Johans”.
I'm glad someone appreciated the joke :-)
French Canadian genealogy- all the girls in a family were named Marie and went by their middle names.
One of the many challenges of French Canadian genealogy!
Peggy on records instead of Margaret the official name is a big one in my family 😅😅
I had a headache with one of my 2x great grandfathers changing his ‘surname.’ My 2x great grandfather was George Nix and changed his name to George Nix Parker.
I couldn’t find him until a DNA cousin contacted me and informed me of this…what a pain lol
I don’t think I would of found George if it wasn’t for our DNA
DNA certainly is a powerful tool!
@@AmyJohnsonCrow this all came about, I feel, because George left his first wife for another lady. George had 9 children with my 2x great grandmother then left her and had another 4 children under the surname ‘Parker’. After my 2x great grandmother died George then married this lady and lived happily ever after.
It is family knowledge that my 2x ggrandfather changed his surname from Seger (different spellings from different relatives) to Olson when he came from Sweden to Chicago, Illinois in 1885. His 1st name is either Carl or Karl, and middle name is Wilhelm, but shows up as William on 1910 census. What a nightmare! I’ve been trying to unravel his information for over a decade! Brick wall!
I have a friend whose great grand father came to this country under one name and changed it when became a citizen and the ggf changed his name by one letter to fraudulent marry another woman. Been helping her look it up
My ancestor told his family he changed his surname to avoid hanging,, There are records for him in his assumed name starting in 1864 till his death in 1921 , but there are no records for him in his claimed birthname or the assumed name before he was 21-22 years old. The family he claimed had no one die or disappear in the correct year range.
It happened to me in 1650 a Austrian ancestor used his first name hieronimus (meaning Jerome) when he migrated to east of France during the 30 years war for rebuilding east of France in beneficiation of a "golden visa" for expert builders. He settled the family with some hieronimus migrating to USA but now that I need to investigate Tyrol part of Austrian, I m not having family name to go further down.
What happens when someone has come from a completely different name (first and last) coming over from another country and their birth date is also different?
I would look more closely to make sure it's actually the same person. Look at things like who he or she is associating with. (Can you identify other family members?) Look at a wide range of records, including church/religious records, court records, and different kinds of newspapers.
My one (possible) relative’s name was James Junior Hart, but in the 1950 census he is listed as James G Hart. His brother’s, Osmond, name looks like it was written as Oswald. The ages add up and the location does as well, but I’m concerned he could be a different person.
Could it just be the Census Takers error? Something else? Could it be the wrong people?
Anything helps :)
It could be the enumerator misheard the name. I can easily imagine someone saying their name is "James J. Hart," but it's heard as James G. Hart. The important thing is to look at *all* of the information on the record -- the age, birthplace, etc. -- and see how it all fits together.
I have a priest and a nun in my family tree that changed their names.
My grandfather was orphaned at three and lived with his uncle. He changed his name to Joe Johnson and became a dirt track race car driver known as “Sucide Joe Johnson”. In 1924, he named his son, my father Joseph Charles Johnson. During WW II, in the Army he legally changed his name to Joseph Charles Johnson. Now the family is trying to figure out who is junior and who is senior. All of this because no one would go to see someone named Benjamin Harrison Clagg race cars in the 1920’s.
Why are there no legal records of name change?
I think most everyone has had this issue. My families name was Saunders in England and switched to Sanders when they came across the pond. Presumably they just didn’t spell it right at immigration. Except one dude, pretty sure he was born and Alfred, immigrated and magically was Charles Frederick for a few decades, switched back to Alfred 1920 and then died a Charles. DNA is helping me piece it together albeit slowly. Matched DNA to a sister so I know it’s the right guy. Just infuriating. If there’s an afterlife, totally looking that dude up first.
I think many of us have a "I'm looking up this dude in the afterlife" list!
My great grandfather Stephen Brannen, lived in Maine with his wife and 7 daughters. He deserted them and went west. He did not divorce the 1st wife.... some where along the way he changed his name to Stephen St. Clair (why? who knows) In PA he met and married Mary Murphy who was 16 and he was 36. They moved to Michigan. His birthdates on records are anywhere between 1836-1842. My mother had gotten a great deal of information about this thru Civil War pension records back in the 1980's!!!! so I was aware of the name change. He was quite a skallywag! It is a challenge to work with the name ST. CLAIR. It's alphabetizweed incorrectly, sometimes it's only CLAIR or ST, Sinclair is also an option but I have yet to find anyone of those. I've been searching him for almost 15 years. Still finding things. :)
Oh I feel for you! My great grandfather Alfred Drew deserted from the British army in 1899 in India. He married? an Indian woman (don’t know name) and had two children. At some point he became William John Smith OR John William Smith. Widowed with two sons they returned to England in the early 20’s. I can’t find him until the 1939 census where the name is misspelled Shimt. How do you misspell Smith 😂! Three men with huge gaps in their lives. I can’t find them on passenger lists perhaps because of the boys’ mixed race status? He was apparently a railway inspector in India but no records there that I can find. My great uncle trained as a watch repairman, nothing. So frustrating!
My 4th great grandfather, who was most likely formerly enslaved, was Henry Hobbs but he possibly went by the name “Henry Bowden” from 1870-1880, his wife was Laura and had a daughter named Della J. For the longest time I couldn’t find him in the 1870 and 1880 Census. I decided to look in the 1880 Census for him with the mindset that he may be under a different name. I ended up finding a household with the names “Henry Bowden” “Laura Bowden” and a “Dillie J Bowden.” The ages were about right, and Henry knew how to read and write and in this Census, this Henry knew how to do so! Right next door was a white man named “William Bowden.” I was able to find Henry Bowden in the 1870 Census and I found Henry Bowden living in the same household as this white William Bowden. I think I’m on the right track here!
That sounds like some great sleuthing on your part!
Could an ancestor move away and drop his middle initial?
Definitely! It’s a good idea to look at other facts about the person (age, birthplace, family members, etc) to determine if it’s the same person.
My Uncle Bill (my godfather) was really a George. But because he there was a George at his workplace, he changed to Bill and it stuck. I am so glad my Dad told me this!
I'm Johann. This is my brother Johann and my other brother Johann.
Pretty much! 😂
Yes I discovered this. I have been looking for my 3X great grandma in Baltimore Maryland Virginia Gray. I discovered she was going a lot of the times by the nickname Jennie.
My great-grandfather Daniel Husted became Daniel Bowker ( alleged by another relative)around 1880. No real explanation😊. I was at a Genealogy convention and asked how to prove this and the 2 leaders looked at each other and said “I don’t know”.
That's going to take extensive research, unless you happen upon a record (like a Civil War pension) where he states that he used to be Daniel Husted.
My “So Many Johans” is “Too many Johns!”
What about when ancestors married a cousin, and by birth; both spouses have the same surname. Was it common for women to change their last name on records in instances like this? I've encountered several very distant ancestors in situations like this, its always a shock when I notice the husbands last name is the same as the wife's fathers surname. Then it gets real confusing when the wife begins using an alternate surname on records, and no subsequent marriages are found.
I haven't been able to find much on my 3x great grandfather Robert Gray Ferguson. I am wondering now if I need to search for a nickname.
Many Scottish Highlanders who spoke Gaelic found that their names were changed when they arrived at Ellis island in the United States because no one could decipher the Gaelic spelling.
Names were not "changed" at Ellis Island. The passenger list was created at the port where the passengers embarked. Once they arrived at Ellis Island, there were translators for numerous languages. The customs officials just looked to see if the passenger's name (at told to them) matched the list. Even if there were some mix-up, the Ellis Island officials did not say, "This is the name you're going to be known as in America." After settling in, our immigrant ancestors sometimes adapted their surname to something that sounded "more American" or was easier for their American neighbors and co-workers to pronounce. But this was something they chose to do; it was not a name changed forced upon them by Ellis Island officials.
Thank! What do you do with last name spelling changes? Such as Plummer, Plumer?
In terms of recording them in my family tree? I go with the spelling that seems to be most common for that person. (Of course, in my notes I write it down as it appears in the record I'm looking at.) If there are spelling differences that wouldn't be obvious (like the surnames Tshudi and Judy for the same person), I'll add an "alternate name."
Me in my genealogy I had an ancestor who had similar situation on some research I had Marie Fortin other Marie Edith Fortin other Marie labranche.
So I had hard time so I asked help and some one found a baptism act under a Marie illigitime (illigitimate ) her god father was a labranche her god mother was a widow of a Fortin.
So when I searched for the other act I found the source for Edith was actually a Mary dite Fortin (called Fortin) (if I'm not mistaken it's was et wedding act ) et death was Marie forti. Her husband sépulture act was named as Marie labranche so all the name matched the time frame also match
I just found out that my great grandfather changed his first AND last name completely. We could never figure out why we couldn't trace our family back before him, and now I uncovered the truth. He was forced into an arranged marriage in 1910 as a child and later changed his name when him and my great grandmother had their first child together 20 years later. I found this out by finding their marriage license and noticing the husband's name was not my great grandfather's name. Which led me to find his census records and the date he started going by his new name. This has been completely shocking to my family. I don't know if he changed his name because at that time families that engaged in arranged marriages were being cracked down on legally and it was his way to protect his parents, or if he despised his parents and wanted a new name.
Are you sure it’s the same man, rather than the marriage record being for an earlier (unknown) marriage?
On all the census returns that were written down by the enumerator my great grand mothers name is written as Mary Ann , The one return that was filled out by my great grand father he has written her name as Marion . He must have retained his thick Irish accent long after me migrated
Take a trip to the USA on a ship and when you are going through immigration they put down the name they thought they heard. Happened to my ancestors. Then there was my dad, that his dad divorced when he was under 6 years old and then Grandma remarried but my step grandfather never adopted dad, Dad assumed his stepdads name and went through school, WW2 and good portion of his life using the assumed name. Had to legally get it changed when he wanted to go on a trip for WW2 veterans to Europe and needed a passport. Funny side note; I became a passport acceptance agent at the Post office for 28 years, after that all occurred.
What about surnames that were changed through spelling shortcuts /changes or other means to and end.
Spelling “changes” are common. When you have a population with a high percentage of illiteracy, you’re going to see numerous ways of spelling a name. Spelling of names didn’t become more standardized until the late 1800s or even later.
I'm doing Portuguese research in Madeira going back to the mid 1400's and found out that children are birth are given any middle and last name the parents wanted to name them. Usually it follows some pattern but not always. So brothers and sisters have different last names. Sometimes the boys will have the same middle and last names and the girls will have another set of middle and last names. Sometimes they are named after a parent or grandparent. Then other times they are named a unique name. Their father or mother can have a totally different name than them. The only way you can find them is the fact that they have the same parents. But then there is the problem of divorce or death of a spouse and remarriage. It is quite challenging.
Wow! That definitely sounds challenging!
I cannot find my Great Grandfather’s Sur name which makes me think he changed it and the same with my Grandmother on my Moms side.
That's a pretty clear example of different names, as they pertain to first names. I'm researching a great aunt, whose full first names according to her baptism certificate was Marie Blanche Irene. The limited information to date seems to indicate she was known as Irene by her family of origin. There is a gap between as record indicating her as Irene in 1942 and marriage record that turns up in 1955 where she is called Irene Dallaire dit Mayer. (Dallaire is our family surname). Mayer is nowhere in any of our family history. "dit" in French Canadian culture translated as "called".
Any idea on why someone's last name might change, other than marriage?
My understanding of dit names is that they were applied to a family, not an individual, and that the usage had died out in French Canada by the late 1800s. This is not an area that I do a lot of research in; I would suggest contacting perhaps the Quebec Family History Society or find a researcher who specializes in French-Canadian genealogy to help you sort that out.
My ancestor Michel Gautron dit LaRochelle came to Quebec from LaRochelle France in the 1600's. They dropped the Gautron and my maiden name was LaRochelle.
Your correct name changing is very confusing 🤔 my grt grandparents changed their surname I cant find out what the original one was !
How do you know they changed their surname?
My ancestors were a couple with 2 children from the wife's 1st marriage and 3 children from her 2nd marriage. The couple and 5 kids all travelled to the USA together. I don't believe that there was an adoption procedure anywhere, for the first 2 children. I think that they all just took their new Father's last name.That way, the first 2 kids, just disappeared from Europe and were re-born in a way, in the USA. I had never imagined that 'divorce' was possible, in any way at that time, but it happened, because they officially married in Germany. They also officially, openly, applied to leave their home town with those 5 children. Since many Europeans left at the same time, it is possible that the true Father of the 2 firstborn children followed them to the USA. It seems like that whole town left and re-settled in their own new small town in the USA. They could all use the same non-English language. The kids learned both languages in school. As usual, Ancestors drive me crazy. By the way, they all changed their last name
to a different spelling, so that the first 2 kids completely disappeared a second time and of course, they all changed their first names to the English version. So, then they all had a new identity. It makes you wonder. Then they never talked about it again,so there are no family stories. I have to re-think the whole thing because I don't know for sure, which of those kids were truly related to the Father, the 2nd husband, in that family.
Another family didn't want their sons to be sent to any more European wars amongst the Royals of Europe. They also didn't run from military service, as others did, but formally applied with officials to leave the country, as a family. Whew!
Someone in the family married a man in the USA, from Germany, officially a wanderer, with no home, nor business or profession.He left without applying for permission to leave. He is listed as a man avoiding military service after having been drafted. In the USA he was a plumber, forever in one location, with his own home and my ancestor, his wife. I found a happy photo of them. Talk to older relatives and write things down. It helps to get these hints just like the ones you got in this video.
What if they changed their given name to a last name upon arrival in the states
The same concepts apply. Look at how else you can identify them. Who are they associating with? What are the facts that you know about them, aside from their name? Go beyond just census records and vital records, and think about all of the different types of records you could find. Focus first on where you know they were living in the US and look for all of the records you can there before you try to make the leap to another country.
How do you handle multiple Fathers - My Mother married again, all the kids but me werer adopted. IN my case I have 2 kids from first marriage and 1 from current .. all in one tree?
What about when they changed modified their surname. My 2nd great grandpa surname was Obidiah Ware and I have not found him on any census or any other record. His birth info is from a family Bible.
I did however find a George O. Bulware with family relationships, ages and names like the ones I have. Additionally it, if correct, gets me back one generation. Also it matches the family story about him being an only child.
My problem is I don't know how to prove that I am correct without a marriage record. I looked in SC and the marriage records for that place and time have been destroyed.
How do I reconcile the 2 people?
Keep doing what you're doing! Find what you can on both men. Look at the other facts about their life (family members, residence, occupations, etc.) Reconcile things that don't agree. (Evaluating what you've found and decide which is more accurate.) One quick tip about the family Bible: compare the date it was printed against the events written in it. (Hopefully the Bible still has a title page and it has a publication date.) For example, if the Bible was printed in 1920, but George Ware/Bulware was deceased by then, he couldn't have been the one to have recorded his name. It's possible whoever wrote that entry in the Bible didn't remember it correctly.
I'm having issues tracing back my McCaig ancestors due to a last name change.
Is there any way to check on name changes orchestrated by Customs or Immigration officers at a port of entry. My great grandfather had a long Russian name on his entry into England, but nobody there could pronounce it or write it so they assigned him the name of Jphn Brown.
I can't speak for England, but if their immigration/entry system was like the one in the United States, his name was not changed there. There's a long-standing myth that names were changed at Ellis Island. In fact, no names were changed there. The passenger lists were created at the port when they boarded the ship, and there were translators for numerous languages. The person would tell the customs official his or her name and he would look on the list (the one created at the point of origin) to find their information. The name change happened later, when immigrants (especially those with "difficult" sounding names) would adopt a more Anglo-sounding name.
3:55 what was the cause of death?
The main cause was listed as "cerebral paralysis," with a secondary cause of "locor motor ataxia" [sic]. (It should be locomotor ataxia, which is a failure of muscle coordination.)
I thought this was going to be about people like my great grandfather who was adopted by his stepfather. Fortunately, I have a copy of his birth certificate so I know what his birth name was. Strangely he changed his middle name. I'm guessing he did this for his adopted father.
Wasn't there a burial place listed on the death certificate? There should have been along with the funeral home that prepared his body. More records to search.
Check the edits on Findagrave, the middle name might have been known to direct descendants not in your line.
I have personal information on many of my family members that isn't in the official records...
He should have had an obituary as well listing his family members.
Naming patterns have to be taken into consideration too.
As I mentioned, the cemetery was listed on the death certificate. There was no source for the middle name on the Find A Grave memorial. There is a whole host of records that could still be explored.
I am having a nightmare with mine as we have John David’s, Jack/John. William David and David Williams. I also have Hy’s and Henry’s. The John one goes 5 generations and not all have middle names. My other problem is I have a Julia Lancey on my tree. I think she was born in the 1740’s Kent England, but I can’t find anything earlier than her marriage to a Stroud Baker in about 1783. It is believed she is of Huegenot descent because of her surname. I can’t prove her birth details or her parentage to trace her back. I am housebound so can’t travel to the Huegenot society in London.
My Moma's maiden name was Ming/Mings, they are not Asian, I can't find when they first came over and if they changed the spelling.
The surname has likely been spelled different ways in different records. Most surnames have been. Work your way back from what you know to what you don't. By that I mean, fully research each generation.
What you stated in the video was not a name change. you just verified information. A name change can be a totally different name or a single letter added or removed. In my family history I have both cases of added and removed a letter Downes (the E was added) and Browne (the E was removed) I was fortunate enough to have many cousins who found info on the Brown(e) line to date back to the 1500's. The Down(e)s only goes back to 1805 but there are literally thousands of Downs before 1805.
As I stated at the beginning, sometimes our ancestors "changed names" depending upon the situation. Genealogists can create obstacles for themselves when they don't explore these. If a researcher was focused only on "James" Marshman, they might easily have ignored the "Birney" Marshman death certificate. In my years of working with genealogists, I've seen that is a common thing for people to do.
The tombstone-maker chisseled the wrong year onto my Grandmother's stone,a mistake forever. I only know about it because my Mother told me the story, mwhen I was a child. It would have been too expensive to get a new stone. or haggle about it, but I kind of feel bad for my Grandmother. I don't know if she can rest in peace. So, even 'Find a Grave' folks don't know that until now. The years on the stones are not completely reliable. That's Life.
That's the fault of the person providing their name. I am known by Emy to my family, but I have NEVER given that name to anyone. My license, school records, married certificate, my passport and all my credit cards are under my "birth name"; Amelia. All documents found on ancestry are NEVER as Emy.
My surname is limoeiro
Giving someone the same name as their parent then calling them by their middle name is confusingly stupid. I'm glad my own parents ended such nonsense,
One of my GG Grandfathers is a dead end. The names on his death certificate aren’t his wife or children. For all I know they could be his neighbors. We have no clue who his parents were. There are no records of him before he moved to California. I’m guessing there’s a good chance that he changed his name when he moved to California as it was easy to do so at that time. 🤷♀️
I would try to find out more about the informant on his death certificate. My best tip for trying to move someone back to a new location is the research all you can about him where you have him. Who are his neighbors in California? (They could have been neighbors in the previous location.)
@@AmyJohnsonCrow Thanks! I never thought about looking up his neighbors before. I know where he was born as listed on his death certificate but there don’t appear to be any census records prior to California. *Grumble*
ROGGE to ROGGIE
Please, speaking spanish
Or learn English?
@@magnusE7 Or just be snooty?