Individuals with the same surnames, who are living in the same area and are close in age are probably brothers. (They can be cousins or even unrelated. Look closely on corroborating evidences including the distance of their residences, actual records and name patterns of their children.)
Man’s children are his wife’s or widow’s children. (They could be mothered to a previous wife, later wife or even to another woman.)
A person with a male name is definitely a male, and a female name is definitely a female. (Name trends constantly change so it is possible that in early years a masculine name may have been used by a female.)
A female is unmarried if her last name is the same as her father’s. (While the assumption is often proven to be true, it is possible that she was married to a man with the same surname. It is also possible that a woman took back her father’s surname after a divorce.)
Children are probably illegitimate if there is no marriage record found. (Marriages were not always documented in early days. Marriage record may have also been lost due to neglect, water damage or fire.)
A person who was born and died in the same place didn’t move. (It is not uncommon that people go back from where they were born after they have spent their life moving around.)
People of the same area followed the same migration routes. (Not because your ancestor’s neighbors came from Ohio, it automatically means that your ancestor did.)
A person named Jr. is a son of a person with the same name. (The designation “junior” as well as “senior”, “aunt” and “cousin” have been used loosely. It is possible that the designation “junior” was used to identify between 2 unrelated individuals of the same name the younger being called junior.)
An ancestor must have moved if he or she disappeared from the town’s or county’s record. (People aren’t only the things that move; territory and political boundaries move as well, so their records may be in a different courthouse.)
People usually die in their sixties. (People do not always live as expected. They may die younger or even longer.)
A good working hypothesis is often based on these assumptions. But substantial proofs are necessary in order to make a claim that these assumptions are really true or not.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Loading ...
