Researching ancestors with common names requires paying special attention to details!
“John Jacob Jinglehiemer Schmidt! His name is my name too!”
It’s a fun & catchy tune for the schoolyard, but…
the idea of numerous individuals with the same name in the same place at the same time is literally
a nightmare for many genealogists.
But never fear! You CAN differentiate between people with the same name! Shy away from researching those John Smiths and Sven Svensens no more!
For starters, try these two tried-and-true strategies:
- Pay attention to details!
- Utilize a timeline!
This post will cover attention to detail. Look for a post on timelines to come soon!
Pay Attention to Details
A person is so much more than just their name.
What other information makes your ancestor unique among John Smiths?
How about:
- birthdate and place
- occupation
- spouse’s name, parents’ names or children’s names
- specific place of residence (if possible, identify a farm name or an address, not just a city/state)
- native language
- year of immigration
Getting the idea?
When you search for your John Smith in a record set, look not just for his name but also for information related to one or more of these additional details.
For example, I have an ancestor named Christen Christensen who lived in Denmark. According to the University of Copenhagen, the given name Christian (and variant spellings like Christen and Kristian) is the number one name given to males in Denmark.1
A search for the first name Christen and last name Christensen on the 1850 Denmark Census on FamilySearch yielded 17,794 results.2
Yes, that number is almost eighteen thousand.
Meaning that in one single census taking in Denmark there were almost eighteen thousand boys and men with the name Christen Christensen and variants thereof.
Marking the boxes to make this an “exact” search still yielded 2,769 results.3
Thankfully, I knew more about my Christen Christensen than just his name. I knew from the autobiographical sketch of his son, Lars Christen Christensen, that Christen was born in 1807.4 Lars also mentioned repeatedly a Sogn (parish) called Ugilt in an Amt (county) Hjorring. These details from Lars’ autobiography were corroborated by the church christening record for Lars Christen Christensen.5
Christen Christensen’s family had already been identified on earlier censuses in Denmark (in 1834, 1840 and 1845).6 The indexed information on FamilySearch said only that Christen et al. lived in Ugilt, Vennebjerg, Hjorring, Denmark. But by viewing the images of the original records I could see mention of a farm name in each of these records: Mellerngaard or Mellemgaard or Melgaard.
Identifying my Christen Christensen on the 1850 Denmark census was possible because I zeroed in on all of these details. I searched not just for the name but also for a birthyear 1807 +/- 2 years. I looked for a Christen with a wife named Maren or something similar. Of course I recognized that a family can move (or a person can die) at any given time. But I first hypothesized that in 1850 this couple still lived in Hjorring Amt.
Guess what? Narrowing the search with these other details only left me with seventy results to comb through. MUCH more manageable than 18,000!
As luck would have it, on the first page of results I saw a Christen in Ugilt Sogn with a Lars Christian listed among his children. Furthermore, when I clicked to view the image of the original document I could see: the family still lived at Mellemgaard.
A Parting Thought
This principle of tuning into details applies also to the “Record Hints” pushed to users by FamilySearch.
I do not know all of the magic behind the hinting algorithms. What I think I understand is that those “Record Hints” appear when some one or more similarities are noted between a person’s details and the indexed information in a database.
What if the algorithm simply looked for first and last name and a lifetime that spanned the year 1850 in Denmark? Think again of those 1850 Denmark census searches. That could be a LOT of “bogus” Record Hints for my Christen Christensen!!
My point: Record Hints on FamilySearch (and for that matter, “shaking leaves” on Ancestry, etc) are awesome suggestions to consider. They still require careful examination though.
Please do not accept Record Hints blindly! Consider ALL of the details in the indexed information. Best of all, click to see that original image and see for yourself EVERYTHING the record has to say!
Remember:
Record analysis is multi-factorial. A person is more than a name!
But you CAN do this! You CAN uniquely identify your common-name ancestors.
Use a fine-toothed comb to glean from the records already in your possession each and every nugget about your person. Keep that list at the forefront of your mind as you search.
John Jacob Jinglehiemer Schmidt?
You’ve got this. Go get ‘im 🙂
- Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen, “Names in Denmark,” (https://names.ku.dk/ : accessed 13 Oct 2022), Christian.
- “Denmark Census, 1850,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2778653 : accessed 13 Oct 2022), search for Christen Christensen.
- “Denmark Census, 1850,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2778653 : accessed 13 Oct 2022), search for Christen Christensen with first and last names marked “exact.”
- “Lars Christian Christensen Autobiography,” Word document in possession of Kristine Hyatt Lyon ([Private Address] : 2022).
- “Danmark Kirkebøger, 1484-1941”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-8944-2QX3 : accessed 12 Oct 2022), Hjørring > Vennebjerg > Ugilt > 4 (1830-1845) Fødte, Konfirmerede, Viede, Døde, Til- og afgangslister, Register > image 7 of 232, christening of Laurs Christian Christensen, 4 Mar 1832; citing Rigsarkivet, København (The Danish National Archives), Copenhagen.
- “Denmark Census, 1834,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C95N-TZSQ : accessed 12 Oct 2022), Ugilt, Vennebjerg, Hioring, p. 225, Christen Christensen household at Melgaard; citing “Denmark Census, 1834,” database and images, MyHeritage (https://www.myheritage.com); citing Rigsarkivet, København (The Danish National Archives), Copenhagen. “Denmark Census, 1840,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLH-1SBW-C : accessed 12 Oct 2022), Ugilt, Vennebjerg, Hjorring, Denmark, p. 230, Christen Christensen household at Mellergaard; citing “Denmark Census, 1840,” database and images. MyHeritage.(https://www.myheritage.com); citing. Rigsarkivet, København (The Danish National Archives), Copenhagen. “Denmark Census, 1845,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLH-17MF-K : accessed 13 Oct 2022), Ugilt, Vennebjerg, Hjorring, Denmark, p. 357, Christen Christensen household at Mellerngaard; citing “Denmark Census, 1850,” database and images. MyHeritage. (https://www.myheritage.com); citing Rigsarkivet, København (The Danish National Archives), Copenhagen.
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