Comments on: Family History Basics – Lesson 5 (Resolving Discrepancies)

By: Meghan

Meghan — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:53:51 +0000

Great post Ardis! This is a problem so many people run into, but aren’t really sure how to handle. Thanks for giving us some things to think about.

By: spencer

spencer — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:21:42 +0000

I ran across a weird name issue with my Great-grandfather. His name was Peter William Larsen. At some point he decided that his name should be William E. Larsen (no idea what the E. stood for – not sure it stood for anything). He went by William E. but never had it legally changed.

Fortunately, there’s some good documentation of the name change – plus my father knew him – but if it occurred a generation or two earlier, it would be way tougher to figure out.

By: Maurine

Maurine — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:04:34 +0000

Very informative and necessary information to people doing research, either novice or long-time researcher. I am enjoying your lessons Ardis, keep it up.

By: Jami

Jami — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:47:09 +0000

This is a great post!

My father’s side of the family has mountain folk a couple generations back and…whew! What a mess! Between lack of records and the family’s desire to clean up some pretty weird relationships, I may never be able to straighten it out. I keep hoping for something really conclusive, but so far every source has said something different. It’s a good thing I like quests.

By: Jon W.

Jon W. — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:14:23 +0000

I ran into this a few years ago. My family when they had logged birth places of several relatives included names of non-existent places. Or so I thought. Turns out that what they had done was put the actual house name in the place.

This was like putting your address where you lived when you were born. It turned out to be a great boon but it took a bit to identify what was going on.