10 December 2011

Is Each Record the Same Person?

You may have several different records on your ancestor, various census enumerations, city directory references, an obituary, a mention in a county history, a marriage register entry, a death certificate, a mention as a witness on a document, etc.?

How certain are you that each of these references are to the same person? Could there have been two people with the same or similar names? Have you possibly confused two first cousins, a father and a son, or two unrelated people.

It is always possible and something to keep in mind.

1 comment:

  1. I was researching a John Johnson; I found a list of yellow fever victims from 1853 that included that name. Then, in another news report, I saw that a John Johnson died in 1851. How could this be? When examining the 1850 census for that county, there were THREE John Johnsons of various ages! Probate records helped me determine the death date of the John Johnson I was researching.

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