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I've been having difficulty searching on familysearch recently. Whenever I try to narrow the search by some factor, like birth date for example, then I only get results that have to do with births (no census, military, etc.)
I wish I could narrow the search by the things I do know about the person, but still get all types of hits in the results. Narrowing the search parameters should not result in narrowing the types of documents being searched, just the locations and the dates.
It is amazing what happens. I hadn't gotten to the 1930 census for my mother and grandparents because I was so focused on going backwards, that when a distant cousin asked me about Emma on the 1930's census I was STUMPED.
I knew about the son that died of pneumonia.... but Emma? EMMA???
So I looked it up and discovered that apparently my dear absent minded grandfather was there the day the census taker came. He knew my mother's name wasn't Sister, which is what they all called her from birth in 1927, but he never could remember her Christian name.... so he told the census taker her name was Emma (his mother's name).
I have noted this in my tree, so hopefully others won't be confused....
My grandfather went by W., W.J. Willie, William, Willie James, and Jay ALL ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION. It's a good thing I know details about him. In a hundred years researchers will be totally dumbfounded and unable to confirm half these documents of his are actually him.
My grandfather went by W., W.J. Willie, William, Willie James, and Jay ALL ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION. It's a good thing I know details about him. In a hundred years researchers will be totally dumbfounded and unable to confirm half these documents of his are actually him.
"Official documentation" doesn't mean nicknames won't be used. Looking for various spellings or variant names is a part of genealogy - anyone who is experienced in genealogy, even a hundred years from now, will be able to confirm the documents are him.
My g-grandfather's name was Edmund, yet he's often listed as Edward. some placed split the difference and call him Ed
I often look at my own handwriting (which, I might say is very good), and am happy I know what it is I've written. All those mmnnwwwwmmmuuu oooaaassss eeeiiii kkkhhh can look so, so similar.
[quote=TracySam;23269756] Oh, and when a census worker comes to your home, would it be too much to ask to give them the actual first name of the person, and not the middle name or nickname? So if your son is named Charles Henry Stuart, please tell the census worker "Charles" and not "Harry."....
[quote]
Made funnier since my grand father was Charles Henry Stuart!
My other pet peeve is people that post family trees on sites like Ancestry.com and GUESS on people. I have found so many errors. And other users seem to piggy-back on those errors, so you see the same ones over and over again, just due to laziness. I mean, come on people, based on your assertion, he fathered this child when he was 7 yrs old??!!!
No joke! What REALLY po's me, is when they have a totally different set of parents born 20 yrs AFTER their child! Really? How the hell does that happen?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2cold
Oh, BTW, great uncle with the oddly spelled surname was also named Joseph, and great grandpa was also named Joseph.
I won't go into the uncle Leo saga.
Probably as much as my GGGGGG(great whatever how many 20+ times) grandfather Nicholas (or Nicholaus) the 1st through 14th, W/O ANY notations that they were the first or third or seventh or anything like that!
Not to mention the 1-6th Lords of something or other that were father and sons w/o any notation of the "third or fourth". BAH! drives me nutz!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom
It is amazing what happens. I hadn't gotten to the 1930 census for my mother and grandparents because I was so focused on going backwards, that when a distant cousin asked me about Emma on the 1930's census I was STUMPED.
I knew about the son that died of pneumonia.... but Emma? EMMA???
So I looked it up and discovered that apparently my dear absent minded grandfather was there the day the census taker came. He knew my mother's name wasn't Sister, which is what they all called her from birth in 1927, but he never could remember her Christian name.... so he told the census taker her name was Emma (his mother's name).
I have noted this in my tree, so hopefully others won't be confused....
That reminds me of hubbys grandpa who just recently passed. He called ALL the women sister. As a matter of fact, I knew I was really family the first time he called me sister. It was so sweet, on the way home I started crying in the car, and hubby smiled when he found out why. We were just dating at the time too.
Knowing historical naming conventions is a good way to understand who and why and how names were assigned to children for their birth order. It also tells you what the child will actually be called when "called to the dinner table." Church names, record of birth names, family names, and more all have patterns that at one time were remarkably predictable and consistent. Add the rules of orthodox religions and suddenly people have 4 names before they get married.
Here is a very very good summary of German Naming Conventions that was helpful to me in getting started. There are several other great articles on the internet covering this. When I compared this pattern to my family trees it was spot on!
Forget ancestry.com and use the the internet....so much more information!
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Historical Naming Conventions
