Hello and welcome back to the blog! I hope that I am finding you well in your projects and research. Today we venture to tackle one of the key aspects of ancestor research a family tree building, surnames. As a quick refresher surname are defined as a common name shared by members of a family, otherwise referred to in conversation as last names. Surname research is instrumental in building out your family tree as you tackle a branch at a time. We will chat today about some good surname research techniques that you can bring back to your projects as well as fun tidbits you might learn about you and your family along the way.
I am sure that you have had many conversations as a genealogist that go a little something like this: “Oh my great, great, great grandmother was a Smith and so are you. We must be related!” Though this could be true, it is important that you never draw quick conclusions. If you did, think about how easy it might be to mistake your friend’s great, great, great grandmother as the Smith needed to fill in an empty space in your tree; despite the fact that she does not fit there. That is why it is always important to double check your sources! However, you are no amateur I am sure. So, you might be asking me what are some best practices to be sure that I am identifying the right individuals that have a common surname so that those that I am finding actually fit in my tree? Firstly, pick one individual you have worked on before. Then try to identify who may be next in the line you are working on. Does the birth certificate or other information gathered about the individual provide the identity of a parent or child? If the answer is no, you may have to trace records backwards or forwards depending upon whether you are looking for a parent or a child. Next ask yourself: What about that individual could be used to identify them throughout census and city directories? Could race be identifying alongside their name? Could age? Could occupation? Pay special attention to addresses. Many times, between censuses and directory recordings, families did not move far from their previous listed address. You can then use a method of checking records across time in censuses and directory records for that individual by trying to correlate their name with several of their known characteristics. In this way you are double checking information you have compiled and allowing it to verify that the individual you have found in certain records is indeed the individual you are meaning to research. Eventually you may find a census or directory that lists children under that individual’s household, or them under the household of their parents. If you find that there is conflicting information within records bear in mind looking for patterns of information that may appear more than once. Through this you can form a hypothesis as to what information is more likely to be correct.
When millions alive and dead have the same Surname even the process above, outlined to simplify things might prove to be tedious. You may find yourself burned out and looking for something a little different to do, but still involving surnames. Something I might recommend is researching the background behind your surname, or that of the line you are working on. It can be fun to understand the greater depth of the meaning behind your surname and where it originated from. Furthermore, scientists found that surnames often connotate wealth. Your surname might even effect where you stand in social mobility today.
As always, I hope that you have found this blog helpful and educational. If there are questions that you have about surnames, surname research, or want to learn more about what they can teach you, please check out my upcoming webinar on the subject which will be found on this same website. All my webinars cover various genealogical subjects and can be found under the webinars tab. If you have personal questions about your research, or questions I have not answered in webinars or past blogs, please feel free to reach out. My contact information is located on the left-hand side of the website. To my fellow genealogists, happy researching!
Winona I Laird “The Genealogy Granny” www.genealogyeductioncenter.com
