Be Careful in Adding People to Your Tree

 

Sometimes we are tempted to add people to a family tree based on their name alone. Or when a name and birth date appear to match.

I received a comment recently about a blog post from Amy in which she indicated she thought we had a common ancestor. She had traced her family back to Devon, England, to two generations of men named Sampson Shepherd. The most recent had married Mary Ann Heard in 1813 in Revelstoke parish, Devon. He was shown as a sojourner in the parish. His presumed father, also Sampson Shepherd, married Elizabeth Kelly in 1789, also in Revelstoke.

Here is where it gets difficult to tell who the younger Sampson was and where he was from. Because he and Mary Ann Heard were married in Devon, one might assume he was from that county as well, and that he might have been born 20 to 30 years prior to the marriage date of 1813. Using the same logic, the older Sampson might have been born 20 to 30 years prior to 1789.

One that comes close is my 4^th great-granduncle, born in Cornwood parish, Devon, in 1771. That would have made him only 18 years old at the time of the 1789 marriage which I think would be unusually young, especially to have already left home. This is the man that Amy latched on to as her ancestor and from there assumed my 5^th great-grandparents were also her ancestors.

As it turns out, though, my Sampson married in Plymouth in 1797, aged 26, to a young lady from that town. They lived in Cornwood for the rest of their lives and had only daughters.

There was a Sampson Shepherd, son of Sampson and Elizabeth Shepherd, baptized in Newton Ferrers parish, Devon, in 1792. He would fit both the age bracket and sojourner status of the second marriage. He had a sister born there as well in 1790. The parents appear to fit with Amy’s information of Sampson Shepherd and Ellizabeth Kelly. These two Sampsons appear to fit better in Amy’s family tree. They are not easy to find, and it is not surprising that Amy did not discover them as possible candidates.

Another note about possible links to my family come from MyHeritage Smart Matches. I got a note from them that Janice had 10 people in her tree that matched with one of my lines. It began with a William James Hicks (1877-1963) who she thought might have been a son one of my 2^nd cousins, 4 times removed, Amy Prideaux Shepheard Gray, who married William Hicks in Plympton St. Mary in 1863. All of Amy’s family and parents were linked in the MyHeritage Smart Matches.

My records show that, while the couple had a son named William, he was actually William Henry Hicks and born in 1864. Nowhere have I found a William James Hicks born in 1877. We have concluded that, this case the Smart Matches are not so smart and that we are dealing with two different families.

There are four other trees on MyHeritage which have members of the Hicks/Shepheard line. Someday I will probably have to look at them and see if their relationships can be confirmed. Mostly what I find is that when I contact these tree owners, on MyHeritage or other sites, few ever reply. I can only assume they are confident in their assessments and don’t want to talk about others’ opinions. Janice was an exception. Perhaps together we might find an answer to her query.

It can sometimes be too easy to add the names of people you think may be related. I have done it in the past and then found out they were the wrong family when I found a family for a Hugh and Isabel McKay and they turned out to be the wrong Hugh and Isabel and wrote about it another blog post.

Virtual Genealogical Association Conference 2020

 

The Virtual Genealogical Association will hold its online conference on November 13^th to 15^th.You can find out more information about on their website. Registration fees are very reasonable considering the lineup of speakers and topics: US$59 for VGA members; US$79 for non-members.

I was fortunate to have been invited to present a talk at this year’s event. My subject will be Surname Origins – Why? When? Why Then? It is based on an article of the same title I wrote for the Journal of One-Name Studies in 2018. My session will be pre-recorded and be viewable before the event begins, as well as during and after of course.

Here is a little teaser about the subject. This information is from my analysis of the Durham Liber Vitae about which I wrote in the aforementioned JOONS article.

Almost all of the names from the 9^th and 10^th centuries from the Durham Liber Vitae manuscript show only a single name for each individual. A pattern began to emerge in the late 12^th century with regard to references to manors, estates and monasteries. In these instances, single names were appended with “de” (of) along with the name of the location of their residence or affiliation and occasionally their title or position.

By the 14^th century, the full use of surnames had begun in earnest, many of them modified from those locative descriptions, but many also from occupations in which individuals or families had been engaged, positions in the community, familial relationships or physical traits (together I refer to as descriptive). During the same, and later periods the use of locative descriptions declined. Last names also began, with spelling variations, to look more “modern” or what we would recognize today.

By the end of the 15^th century, the use of single names and references to areas or residences (manors or monasteries) were almost non-existent.

Many other medieval sources have also been reviewed and will be highlighted in the talk. All of them show similar timing in the introduction and use of surnames.

So, was there an underlying reason why people began to use, or at least to be recorded with a surname, after nearly 1,000 years (post-Roman Empire) of non-use? Why did it seem not to occur until the 14^th century? Was it in response to political or societal shifts, coincidentally across almost all of Europe? Or was it because of something else?

Those are the questions we will investigate in my presentation.

I hope many of you can join in and listen to many of what looks to be interesting and valuable genealogical research talks.

Using Google Alert...

... to find information about people and places.

I subscribe to many different email lists, primarily, but not exclusively to do with areas in which we had ancestors living. While many posts have nothing to do with our family, there are often interesting tidbits and advice that might assist us in designing and completing a search for people and events. It should not be surprising that most genealogists share similar problems in finding and interpreting information – messed up indexes, spelling differences, confusion about parentage, etc.

Another source I use is Google Alert. Through this service, I keep track of news about: Cornwood in Devon, where my Shepheard ancestors came from; Plympton also in Devon, where many events occurred in the past that affected my ancestors; and of course, Shepheard, in order to find out where any people with my surname might be living, some of whom may be distant relatives.

Many alerts are just current news reports about events and people, but occasionally they have to do with historical information. This week I was alerted to an individual who wrote about his Shepheard ancestors in Surrey. There is no doubt we share the same spelling of our surname, so it was interesting to see where his family lived. See Chris Shepheard’s Peeps into the Past.

The alert was about a painting he had commissioned to show store front that had housed a business run by his grandparents. A photo of the family standing in front of the building was used to recreate the site.

It reminded me of a water colour I had done depicting the Shepheard ancestral home in Cornwood as it might have looked in the late 19^th century. It is a great idea to take old or new photos and have someone turn it into a picture you can hang on your wall that shows the place where your ancestors lived.

 

Water colour of East Rooke, Cornwood Parish, Devon by Christine Pascoe

Anyway, Chris used the picture to comment on his family members, a nice vignette that related his own connection to the past. I know he will also treasure the painting which will continue to bring up many more memories.

If you are looking for ways to find relatives or learn about areas where your family members lived and worked, Google Alert is one way to find connections you might otherwise miss. Click on the link and find out how.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be aware, though, that any link from sources such as this, while helpful, may also take you to sites that could have viruses. Do not open anything you do not trust. It's always a good idea to have your anti-virus software up to date as well, for any browsing of the Internet.