12 November 2014

Here a W, There a W, Everywhere a W

Initials can frustrate genealogists, but at least four of these heirs of James Kile had "W" as a middle initial. That seems more than a coincidence. This would be a good thing to investigate. It turns out in this case the "W" in all cases stood for Wiggins, their mother's maiden name.

Things that seem coincidental may not be. And middle names can always be clues.

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 12, 2014 at 10:04 AM

    Those middle initials can be very important, Just a reminder that sometimes a married woman's middle initial is her maiden name, not her birth middle name. Just another thing to think about as you are checking out those names.

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  2. AnonymousNovember 13, 2014 at 9:06 AM

    It's interesting to see how each man signed his name -- the differences in the way the "W" and "K" letters are formed.

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  3. AnonymousNovember 13, 2014 at 11:54 AM

    I discovered that my paternal grandfather's middle name of "Tucker" was his mother's maiden name as well as his grandmother's maiden name.

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  4. AnonymousNovember 16, 2014 at 4:34 PM

    One family that I researched named every one of their six sons with the middle name of Robert, after the father. Well actually it was their first name and they went by their middle name! Very confusing for the post office in the small town where they lived as all had the exact same initials.

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