The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-And-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors (28 page)

Always assume that there is at least one other person with the same name as the individual you are searching living in that community. If you do so, you will never automatically attach a piece of data to a specific individual. Instead, you will reserve judgment until you have determined that no other individual by that name existed at that place at that time. If exhaustive study supports your conclusion, you have not lost a thing. If you find that there is more than one person by that name, you will not have to redo your work.

When you know where each man of the same name lived, you will find different neighbors listed in the census, different people witnessing their wills and pension applications, different executors of their estates, different buyers of their land, and so forth. The wives they chose, the ministers who married them, their children, and their children's spouses all will be different, even though their names are the same. Once you know the neighbors, it becomes easier to determine which man in the census is the one you seek, and this census entry will give you a pattern of ages and dependents, especially with those difficult census records before 1850. The census information also gives you clues regarding his livelihood and lifestyle.

The first example is a simple one. We need to determine how many men named George W. Kelley lived in a small community in Missouri. Look at the five recorded land purchases, all made within a year of one another. Hint: If you do not know how to read the following land descriptions, see Hatcher's
Locating Your Roots
or a good beginning genealogical reference on land records.

George W. Kelley bought land in section 25, township 31, range 24, west of the 5th Principal Meridian.

George W. Kelley bought land in section 25, township 35, range 23, west of the 5th Principal Meridian.

George W. Kelley bought land in section 35, township 35, range 23, west of the 5th Principal Meridian.

George W. Kelley bought land in section 36, township 35, range 23, west of the 5th Principal Meridian.

George W. Kelley bought land in section 36, township 35, range 23, west of the 5th Principal Meridian.

What we can't help but notice is that four of these parcels were in approximately the same location, while one was several miles away, in an adjoining county. Does this mean there were two men involved? That would be a hasty conclusion, although it does appear that way. Were there only two? That would be another hasty conclusion, as two or more men may have been relatives choosing to live close to one another. Figure 8-2 on page 146 shows the locations of the parcels.

Only the most important information located after extensive research is presented here.

1.
Jesse Kelley told a local historian that his father purchased land near Walnut Grove.

2.
George W. Kelley was born July 1789; he died June 1869 and was buried in the Kelley Cemetery located in section 12, township 34, range 23. In which county is the Kelley Cemetery?

3.
In 1850, George W. Kelley was enumerated in Greene County, dwelling #1251. His occupation was sheriff. He was age forty-one, born in Tennessee. With him were Sarah, age forty, born in Tennessee, Jesse M., age twenty, Ellen, age eighteen, Harrison, age sixteen, Sarah E., age fourteen, all born in Tennessee. The rest of the children were born in Missouri.

4.
In 1850, George W. Kelley was listed in Polk County, dwelling #651, age sixty, born in North Carolina, a farmer. With him were Elizabeth, age forty-eight, born in South Carolina, as well as Henry M., age twenty-seven, Russell W., age nineteen, and Amanda, age twenty-one, all born in Illinois, and younger children, all born in Missouri.

5.
George W. Kelley was said to have lived in Logan County, Illinois (Goodspeed's History of Polk County, p. 661).

6.
Jesse M. Kelley appeared at the Old Settler Dinner in 1906 and stated that his father had come to Missouri in 1837. “I was born in Greene County, Tennessee, in 1830. My father represented this county in the State Legislature for one term and was twice sheriff of this county.”
¹

The information here points to two men of the same name. That conclusion can be drawn not only from the land descriptions and how they align with the census records, but from the age given on the tombstone and its correlation to the census, the occupations of the two men, the names of the wives, the statement of one of the men's son, and their different origins.

This simple example merely sets the stage for examining cases that are much more complicated. The steps the researcher must take are the same no matter how complex the problem is; the clues, however, may be much more subtle and difficult to locate.

Remember, the second step is to pinpoint the location.

Figure 8-2
Location of George W. Kelley's land.

Step 3:
Determine the (approximate) ages of the people involved.

The census, of course, is one of the best resources for searches after 1850. Before that period, affidavits, taxation, and life events will aid in this search. (See chapter two, “Finding Births, Deaths, and Marriages Before Civil Registration.”) The importance of knowing an individual's age is that it will help you decide which life events pertain to which person. As our task is to determine which record belongs to which person, recognizing normal age related behavior or knowing how laws may affect people at certain stages of their lives will help distinguish those of the same name.

Step 4:
Enlarge the circle.

Move outside the records that the men of the same name created in order to obtain more surnames to work with. Get to know your ancestor's children, his siblings, his in-laws, and, of course, his neighbors. This can help you determine how many men there are and which record belongs to whom. Let's look at John T. Williams as an example. One of the ways we determined that there were two men named George W. Kelley was the two census listings. What about this case, in which there were again two census listings in two counties?

In this case not only are the names the same, but the ages are very close and the places of birth are the same. In the first listing, however, the elderly man is living with another family, perhaps that of a daughter and son-inlaw. In the second listing, he is a married man maintaining his own household. Could he have both married and moved and thus be enumerated on both censuses? Clearly we need more information. There were no probate or land records for John T. Williams in either county. There was no newspaper notice of either marriage or death. No marriage was recorded in either county for John T. Williams. How would you
enlarge the circle
?

We need more information for James H.M. Smith and his wife, and for Allen Williams — men with common names who lived in different counties. Unfortunately, onomastic evidence (from child-naming patterns) lends little help here. Both families include a son named John, but that name is too common for us to make any assumptions from it, and none of the others correlate. A local history of Polk County, however, does tell us that Martha Smith was the child of John T. Williams and his wife, Mary Russell. But no one named Mary was living in Polk County with Martha and James Smith, and that census was taken in August, earlier than the one in Greene County, which was taken in October. Mary was in Greene County with John T. and a possible son Allen Williams. Therefore, we must have two men, right?

The answer to this problem lies in the dates when the enumerations were taken. Neither was taken on the official date of the census, June 1. What rules were given to the enumerators? They were to count the people living in the household as of June 1. The enumerator in Greene County followed the rules. Mary Smith was still living on June 1, 1850. By the time a different census taker visited the Smith home in Polk County in August, Mary had died, and so he did not report her within the household. Someone in the household, however, must have told him that she had recently died because he put her on the mortality schedule even though she did not
officially
belong there. Only one man was represented in these two census listings. (There
was
another man named John T. Williams living in Polk County at the time, but that's
another
story!)

Step 5:
Gather as many records as possible.

Study the details.
Don't just write down the names — they've been causing us enough trouble already!
Be sure to note locations, associates, witnesses, and neighbors. Place the records in chronological order rather than attaching them to individuals and families. The more records you are able to find that pertain to the people you are researching, the easier your task will be.

Tax records are one of my favorite means of distinguishing individuals from one another because they reflect shorter periods of time. People could easily come and go during the decade between census reports, but taxes were taken at least once a year and many years of those rolls may have survived. Correlated with land records and census data, they can prove invaluable. They sometimes contain designations the tax collector used to be sure that he had taxed the right man for the correct amount. Some of the designations I have found jotted next to men named
Newcomer
in the tax rolls of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania include “thick” (which meant “fat”), “poor,” “renter,” “red,” “gentleman,” “tenant,” and “inmate.” Sometimes the tax collector designated the men named Newcomer by where they lived — ” John Newcomer, half-way,” “John Newcomer, Ulrich Road” and “John Newcomer, Bainbridge” — or by their occupation, such as farmer, blacksmith, innkeeper, miller, turner, stiller, shoemaker, and gunsmith.

You also need to watch for the confusing terms
senior
and
junior
. These terms do not necessarily imply any sort of relationship.
Senior
merely referred to the eldest man of that name in the community,
junior
the younger, and
third
the next. If the elder man died or moved away, everyone moved up a notch, so “junior” became “senior,” “third” became “junior,” and so forth. This practice was most common during the colonial period, although in many instances it persisted into the nineteenth century. Of course,
senior
and
junior
may refer to father and son — and then again, they may not. To summarize, you cannot rely on these terms alone to differentiate between individuals or confirm a relationship.

Records associated with your ancestor's church affiliation are also helpful. Membership and other church records can help you find names and dates, of course, but learning about the tenets and doctrines of that church will help you better understand the individual and the community. What was acceptable behavior, and what wasn't?Was your ancestor a conformist or a rebel? People did not always remain within the same church all their lives. If someone changed affiliation, there may be a notation that will help you differentiate between him and the man of the same name. Examples might include a marriage outside of the Quaker meeting, or the marriage of a man of the Dunkard faith in a German Reformed Church.

Many researchers have had difficulty sorting out the Newcomer family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This family group, persecuted Mennonites from Switzerland and the Palatinate, arrived in America about 1722. The Mennonites, often called “the plain people,” were Anabaptists and pacifists who believed in living as close to God as possible, and spent most of their energies preparing for the next life rather than recording the events of this one. As may be expected, they left few records.