How To Avoid A Brick Wall And Research Your Ancestors With Common Names
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If you’re struggling with researching ancestors with common names, I feel your pain.
In my tree, I have three guys named George Henry Burke. My 4x great-grandfather’s name is Samuel Jones. (I can’t tell you how I often I’ve wished his first name was something like Zebediah or Windsor.)
I have Irish branches that repeated the same name over and over. And on my Okinawan branches, almost everyone – men and women – had the first name Kama.
What do you do when an ancestor has a popular name?
First, don’t lose hope. It is possible to figure out which person is your ancestor, even if their name is John Smith.
In this article, I’ll share strategies on how to research an ancestor with a common name so you can feel confident you’re building the correct family tree.
Issues with researching ancestors with common names
There are different challenges in dealing with forebears that had more ordinary names.
One obstacle is that you don’t know enough information about them to start tracking them, such as their birthplace or who their parents were.
Another is that there were too many people with the same name in the same area and you can’t tell which one is the right person.
This happened often with families who used the same given names over and over so many generations have the same name. And it’s made even worse if a couple had a child that died and they reused the name again.
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Strategies for researching common name ancestors
Here are five strategies to help you solve your question of your ancestor's identity.
Start with the basics
Before you start researching, it's best to go back to basics. Fill out a family group sheet with their spouses and children.
Getting an idea of their spouse(s), children, and where events took place will enable you to start eliminating possible candidates faster so you can narrow down which person is your relative.
After you've put together the family group sheet, review everything from your past research. Are there any clues on the records you already have that you may have missed or forgotten about? For example, witnesses on baptism records.
Identify what’s unique about them
Find everything you can about them to learn what makes them different from others with similar names.
Look for as many records as possible and as many types of records as possible, such as:
Military service
Immigration years, if relevant
Newspapers
Church records
You’re looking for what differentiates all the, say, John Smiths who lived in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, from one another.
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Research their family, friends, and associates
When dealing with these ancestors, it's important to know who else was around them. This includes their siblings, extended family like cousins, and their friends and associates.
Researching your ancestor’s siblings could give you the hint that you need to pinpoint them. You may find a birthplace or parents’ names that could assist you with finally sorting out which person is your actual family member.
Every person you find that connects to them can be a clue. Neighbors in the census could be siblings or in-laws. Witnesses to events like baptisms and weddings were often family or very close friends. Even fellow church members may aid you in determining who the right person is.
If you’re seeing the same names over and over, research them and where they came from.
People often moved from place to place together - and not only family members.
Chain migration happened often. People from the same town in a state or country would often migrate to the same place because it would offer a network of people that they already knew who could get them settled into the new town.
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Do a surname study of the area
Another strategy to try is to research everyone with that surname in the area. This can be a challenge depending on where they lived and how many people shared their last name, but it can enable you to put together family groups.
By seeing which people belonged to which family, you may be able to see potential matches to your ancestor. You may spot clues like naming patterns or the years they lived in that place that can lead you to your person.
I was able to identify the parents of my 4x great-grandmother by looking at every man named Merrill in all of Vermont. (It didn’t take as long as you’d think.)
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Use tools
There are organizational tools that you can use to sort out people with the same name.
One great tool is to make a timeline with all the known events for that person, including where they happened. Include their siblings and parents, too, if you know who they are.
Laying out exactly what happened and where can help you remove possible candidates. The same person can't be in two places at the same time, right?
A timeline will also show you gaps in your research so you know what you should focus on next.
Another handy tool is to put together a table with the information of all the possible people that could be your ancestor and compare them.
The table can include things like their family members, when they were born and died, property, when they immigrated, and who their spouse was. Basically, anything you can include so you can compare person to person.
Creating a comparison table can show you who does or does not match up with the known facts about your ancestor.
As you find more records, add them to the timeline and/or comparison table.
The process of elimination
You're looking for the right person in the right place at the right time.
As you try these different strategies in your genealogy research, get rid of people that don't fit the known facts about your ancestor as you go.
Tip: Don’t delete them from your research logs or reports. You want to be able to remember why you disqualified someone later on, just in case.
For the remaining people, keep looking for a variety of records so you can gather more identifiers about your ancestor and each contender.
After you’ve gone through all the online records, try local archives and libraries. They have many unique records that can help you break through the brick wall of an ancestor with a typical name. You can use things like repository visit checklists to help you get prepared for your visit, or to contact them.
The process of knocking out potential candidates as your ancestor can take a long time, so stay positive and chip away at it.
Final thoughts
Researching an ancestor with a common name can be a challenge.
Patronymic naming systems, the reuse of given names, or just plain common last names like Jones can all make it harder to identify which person is actually your ancestor.
Using a variety of strategies, along with having patience, will enable you to bust down the brick wall of having common name ancestors.