Same family driving me crazy!

[kathyc]

I'm not looking for help with this one, but had to come and vent where people will understand my frustration.

I'm going crazy trying to sort out who's who in a situation where two men with the same name and about the same age married women with the same names in the same registration district and had their kids before 1855 in an area with lots of missing OPR data due to having a breakaway church. ARGH!

There. I feel better now.

Kathy

[sheilajim]

Hi Kathy

I know the feeling. I guess our ancestors were not thinking of their descendants when the were naming their children.

Regards

Sheila

[joette]

Yep sometimes feel like digging them up so I can strangle them.
Why oh why did they lie/mislead/ages,birthplaces,parentage Also name all their weans the same as their cousins,debunk to somewhere else around Census time,have the weans christened in obscure Parishes where I can find NO CONNECTION to.
I can usually hazard a guess as to why in most cases but that doesn't lessen the frustrations.So yes as they say in the ads "It's good to talk".

[Russell]

Hi Kathy
My wife and I know the frustration this can cause as we've had a couple of instances.
Most recently we had two men of the same name marrying Christina McLean. The men were born in different places in Argyll but the Christinas
were from the same village.
It turned out that after her first Archie McGilvray died she went off and married another Archie McGilvray.
This explained why two teenage boys suddenly turned up in the household in the 1841 census with the McGilvray name who couldn't have belonged to our Archie (Number 2) McGilvray. Plus it resolved a whole host of other inconsistencies.
It took as 8 to 9 months to sort that one out so be patient and just work your way through gathering data. Then it will all seem crystal clear

Russell

[sheilajim]

Hi Cathy, Russell and Joette,

It is frustrating and very confusing. It seems to me that the farther back you go the more this happens. It is too bad that the OPRs don't give more information. Whoever was writing them knew the truth, but today it seems that you have to guess, or infer a lot, which isn't good.

Regards,

Sheila

P.S. We need an icon of someone pulling out their hair

[kathyc]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one.

Kathy

[G.Love]

I remember when I first started investigating my tree about 3 years ago, and was very inexperienced, I used to practically go mad with frustration. Because every generation of one branch all used the same names for the male children, so it was hard to find out if one was a direct ancestor or an ancestor's brother, cousin or uncle.

All the boys in the family were called Hugh, Daniel, Patrick and Peter. Then they would all have sons and each of the original brothers would call their sons Hugh, Daniel, Patrick and Peter. So going through the generations the incidence of these names multiplies into the hundreds. I almost quit before I got going.

Now i'm very happy to say that I got back to g-g-g-g-g-grandparents, and I think I'll leave it at that. I now just like investigating their lives, but I don't feel a need to go any further back. Apart from anything else, all lines end in Ireland and I'm not up to that particular challenge - just yet.

[HeatherH]

Hello Kathy,
I think I know just what you are speaking off. I have an Adam Young in lochwinnoch who has 3 sons William, John and Adam. All 3 had a son for their first born and followed naming conventions I now have 3 Adam Youngs born in Lochwinnoch 2 in 1820 and 1 in 1827 .And bless their souls they each went on to have wee Adams of their own.
Dead rellie hunting. Don't you just love it ?
Happy Hunting,
HeatherH

[Miss Poohs]

Infuriating sometimes isn't it?

Why do we love it though? I guess for me, it's just because I'm nosey.