Need tips on keeping ancestors with the same or similar given names straight.

Question

I am hoping that the hive mind can give me a tips for keeping ancestors with similar or the same given name in the correct order. I know that everyone has at least "one of those" types of lines in their family trees. An example from my own would be would be my husband's paternal maternal line Henry Herman Katter. Henry Herman Katter's paternal line is filled with Heinrich Hermans or Herman Heinrichs. Some are direct ancestors, other's the ancestor's siblings or cousins of his direct ancestors. There are times when I do research I am not sure if I am start mixing up the Heinrich Herman or the Herman Heinrich.

Answer 1

You might want to make a Free Space Page to gather the notes in one place.

Or you can put something in the profile's Research Notes as I did with Ephraim https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sands-240#Many_Ephraim_Sands

Or at the beginning of the bio as I did with Herman https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Tapelt-4

What ever approach you pick, it will probably help if you include links to the confusing profiles.

Answer 2

There are several tactics that I use at various times.

First, on WikiTree, the obvious one is to refer to them by their WikiTree # such as Katter–1234. Ditto on FamilySearch.

Another way is to refer to them by birthdate, e.g. Heinrich b. 1777 and Heinrich b. 1769. This can be useful if you know the birthdates and you're confident in the information. Less so if you end up trying to refer to Heinrich b. about 1770 and Heinrich b. about 1772. In that case a more detailed descriptor that's some combination of date-place-spouse is needed, such as Heinrich Katter of Randolph County who married Nancy Jones circa 1755.

You can also refer to them with a brief descriptor like "Big John Mayes" or "William May the Planter." The May Family DNA project uses both this method and the previously mentioned date-place-spouse differentiators.

Large family associations assign each person an ID number. Those numbers can be really useful when you're discussing ancestors with other descendants and trying to make distinctions or when reading research papers. Usually the association assigns a whole lineage a letter and then uses a numbering system in combination with the letter. These can be useful for family associations or one name studies, and using known IDs can be helpful to others. But I wouldn't bother making them up to deal with a handful of confusing people.

You can see examples of this on the Yoder Newsletter website or the Parke Society. For the Yoders, Hans Yoder of Great Swamp is YB, then his children are YB1, YB2, etc. Their children are YB11, YB12, YB21, YB22, etc. The Parkes IDs are generation number-lineage letter-family group #. Robert Parke is 01K1, his children are 02K1, 02K1, etc., the next generation is 03K1, 03K2 and so on. Both give every person a unique ID. The Yoder system makes it clear whose children are whose within the numbering system.

What I wouldn't do is number people using Roman numerals. In the U.S. and Western Europe those numbers suggest certain relationships and descent and are usually taken as part of someone's name. Not terrible if they're known grandfather-father-son, but confusing if they're an array of cousins, uncles, sons, grandfathers, etc.

Hopefully some of those ideas help!

Answer 3

I feel your pain.... I have a free space profile just for the people I don't have enough information for to create profiles. At last count I have 13 George Bicknells, within a few years and miles of each other in Warwickshire. I have lots of John and Thomas Bicknells too, same era and area. On the female side of things, entire gaggles of Sara, Elizabeths, and Anns.

Based on the area where they all lived and the dates, it's a fair bet they are related to me, as my great grandfather emigrated to Canada from Nuneaton in the early 1860s.

There are many, many other Bicknells whose ancestor migrated from Dorset to Massachusetts Bay Colony over 200 years earlier than my great grandfather's move. Thus far, no connection between those Bicknells and mine has been found.

So I would echo the answer of the person who recommended making notes in a free space profile, just to keep track of the snippets of information that you find. Other than that, I don't have any useful advice, as I've about given up on my gaggle of Georges.