What's in a name??

In another post I have discussed how important names came be when searching for ancestors.

Often you may find a trend in names which pass down the generations or links between families. Sometimes this can get confusing, especially if you have numerous John Smith's in your tree (or Ralph Miller in my case).  This is where you have to be very careful on dates.  It's important to see your ancestors as people and not just names.  If I had a pound for every time I had seen a family tree with the father being married to a daughter or granddaughter because of a mix up where two people have the same name.

Another trend which is very common in families for a child to be given the mother's maiden name as a middle name.  This can help if you are searching for marriage and are unsure of the maiden name but notice an unusual middle name.  

For example, my Great Grandfather was Thomas Brooks Miller (1875 - 1952), his mother being Margaret Ann Brooks (1849-1925).  Sometimes it can skip a generation, for example Elizabeth Davy White, my Grand Great Aunt (1894 - ?) was the daughter of Mary Jane Martin (1852-?) and Alexander Linton White (1830-1905) so you could question that the name "Davy" is not connected.  However, after much delving it was found that Mary Jane's mother was Elizabeth Davy (1831-?) which is where the name came from.  

Another more unusual example of where  this happens is that of my Grandmother Dorothy Miller (1919-2004) who's middle name was Cameron.  A strange name , particularly for a female and even more so when there is no direct connection to the surname.  Or so I thought.  One of the witnesses for the marriage of Dorothy's parents was Grace White (1889-?), the half sister of Dorothy's mother Mary Jane Kelly (1878-1952).  Grace married Thomas Albert Cameron (1891-1915) who died in South Africa during World War 1 (I will write another post on his story).  Dorothy was the next child born into the family so it is clear to make the assumption that as Grace and Mary Jane were obviously very close that it would be seen as a tribute to give the next born child the name of his/her uncle.  This is a good example where witnesses on marriage certificates can be seen a very important.  Never discount witnesses as they can unlock answers that you may have been searching for. 

A trend in my family is that my mother and her sisters all have the same initials.  This seems to be a more recent trend and I'm not sure how common it is.  

Hopefully this gives you a few examples to look out for whilst searching for your ancestors.  If you can think of any more or have come across other trends please leave a comment below. 

Happy hunting!!