Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

 It’s Saturday Night again – 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision. 

1)  All genealogists are human, and most of us have made gone on wild ancestor (goose) chases in our genealogy research career.  What was one of the wild ancestor chases in your research?  Explain the situation and how you (hopefully!) solved the puzzle.

My Not-So-Wild Goose Chases

I don’t know that I’d call them “wild goose chases,” but my tree is definitely full of same-name entanglements that have taken me down some complicated research paths. Over the years, I’ve learned that when it comes to sorting out ancestors with common names, you can’t just look for “your person” — you often have to investigate everyone with that name in the area to figure out who’s who. Sometimes, these names are repeated across multiple generations, making it even more of a challenge to determine which record belongs to which individual.

Here are a few examples of these recurring name puzzles in my research:

James Crawford
This one’s the ultimate challenge. There are five different James Crawfords who appear in early Lincoln County, Kentucky records — and they are interwoven. My database has over 50 men named James Crawford. Three were born in 1770. Two were born in 1772 and died in 1854 — and one of those is my ancestor. Two others were born around 1758 and died in 1836; for a long time, their records were mixed up in many online trees. Untangling them took years of careful research, land records, and analyzing associates.

Hiram Currey
My Currey line features four generations of Hiram M. Currey. On top of that, I’ve identified eleven variations of Hiram M. Currey in my file, including two spelled CURRY instead of CURREY. Each one had to be tracked down and documented to keep the generations straight.

William Thompson
Two men named William Thompson lived in Wapello County, Iowa, at the same time. Sorting out land, census, and probate records was the only way to be sure which one was mine.

Noah Briles
My second great-grandfather on the Briles line was named Noah — and unfortunately, that’s a very popular name in the Briles family in North Carolina. I had to sort through many Noah Briles references to confirm the right one.

Jason Hammond
My great-grandmother was admitted to the DAR using Jason Hammond of Connecticut as her patriot ancestor. By the time I applied, that line had been closed due to confusion with another Jason Hammond — also from Connecticut. That required fresh documentation and a whole new application.

Rev. John Foster
My fifth great-grandfather was Rev. John Foster. One of his sons? Also Rev. John Foster. You can imagine the confusion in church and community records!

Thurston Wells
My second great-grandfather, Thurston Kennedy Wells, was born in New York and migrated through Kansas, Michigan, and Iowa before settling in Kansas. But there was another Thurston Wells in Michigan — and their records have been frequently confused over time.

The Smiths
And then there are the Smiths… I have at least four different Smith lines in my tree. Enough said.

These aren’t what I’d call wild chases, but they’ve certainly required a lot of investigative skill, patience, and creative problem-solving. The reward? A cleaner, better-documented tree — and the satisfaction of knowing that the ancestors I’ve placed are really mine.