this is not a rant really but maybe some will think so?
When researching Scottish roots it is very very possible that 2 couples will have the same names and then also have children with similar names within the same time period and very close locations.
I presume this would be the same for the those Scottish/Irish that emigrated and met up and married within their adopted colonies.
What I would like to say is that just today (after 20+ years of research in scotland) I found a close match birth date for 2 different John Campbells in the same year (1838) to parents of the same name (Donald Campbell and Jean/Jane/Janet/Jessie McPherson) and both were "Inverness-shire"
I've popped them into Ancestry and sure enough they're muddled up.. I can imagine that overseas visitors might well have latched onto the first (more well known?) match as that one had a lovely historical story attached (kingussie) however we (family) alway felt this one was not a true match.. would have been nice to be connected with the story of course
BUT we are the other family that would have got lost unless we looked for it.. in fact it's the small footprint that would have gone amiss unless you were proper looking for it
John Campbell is a very very very very (did I say very?) common scottish name with parents Donald and Jean (McPherson) there is at least 4 of them in the time frame and right place and that only those that recorded ..
Yes this a brick wall,, but in short when you are researching Scottish roots with very common surnames you have to expect that there will more than one same named partnership with same named children in the same era/place .. you cannot assume xxx
