Misleading Clues

Ron Wild looks at red herrings that can throw genealogists off course.

The above list of Mary Joneses born in the first quarter of 1896 indicates the necessity of having at least another initial, or knowledge of the registration district in which the birth took place, in order to narrow the search.

Family Traditions
There is usually some basis for the existence of family traditions and in many instances they are associated with royalty or nobility. When one considers the vast wealth and the estates owned by families of title, it is quite possible that our ancestors worked on an estate or helped in their manors and town houses. With this kind of close association the possibilities for intermarriage between the classes are endless. One need only consider the case of the present Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, whose father was in charge of the royal stables.

For these reasons we should not dismiss traditions out of hand but should carefully examine source material and document the facts rather than being misled into accepting or rejecting them at the outset. Many noble families had sons and daughters whom through poor marriages or impoverished family resources slid down the social scale. Their descendants are ordinary rank and file with no accurate knowledge of their noble heritage.

Christening Records
Most western countries developed official government recording of births at some time in the 1800s but prior to this we are dependent almost exclusively on church or other religious records. These rarely record birth dates but usually record christening, coming of age, circumcision, conversion or some other event that occurred after birth. It is often true that these events took place close to the birth date but this is not always the case. Researchers often estimate other ancestral data such as birth and marriage dates using parish-recorded events, only to come up with findings that cause doubt. Take the case of a first child christened or baptized at age eight. A researcher misled into believing that the birth date was close to the baptismal date might wonder if the parents would have waited eight years to have a child. They assume that there are missing children or that they have the wrong parents. Again a marriage date for the child at an estimated age 12 would be immediately dismissed as wrong when in fact the child was a young adult of 20.

The above passenger list is from the S.S. Lake Nipigon embarking passengers at Liverpool, England and Queenston, Ireland and disembarking them at Quebec, Canada. Stated destinations of passengers include New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, St. Louis, Chicago, Toronto, Hamilton and Montreal. The occupations of the passengers, as laborers and servants, suggest that they were immigrants and not business passengers.

Records Without Sources
Increasingly, huge searchable databases such as the IGI, World Family Tree, Ancestral File and Family Archives contain data that can be completely misleading. This comes about because the data submitted is accepted by the databases at face value without checking. The assumption is that the submitter has only submitted authenticated data but this is frequently not the case. Those submitting material cover a broad cross section of research experience ranging from the rank novice to the most exacting. New submitters are usually so anxious to get their names on the database that they submit them at the first opportunity with incomplete dates and places and incorrect spellings. It is not uncommon to find the same person listed on these databases with many variant facts leaving the researcher to determine the correct data. Sometimes the data that best fits the pedigree being worked on is selected. Database information should be treated with some skepticism until it is properly documented with at least two verifiable cited sources.

Common Surnames
Every nationality has its common surnames and the English are no exception. Under every circumstance genealogical research is an exacting science requiring a high degree of analytical skill and the ability to draw conclusions and make choices from data that is skimpy and often conflicting. Nowhere is the opportunity to be fooled by misleading clues more apparent than with common surnames such as Smith, Brown, Jones, Taylor, Johnson, Wilson and many others. The number of Mary Smiths, John Browns, Susan Jones, William Taylors or James Johnsons born in any one year is almost overwhelming. If carefully documented linking from generation to generation is the hallmark of accurate ancestral research, then this is doubly the case with common surnames.

Imagine searching for a Mary Smith born in New York in 1897 and finding that 23 Mary Smiths were born there that year. Obviously it would help to know the month and if possible the day, but that kind of data isn’t always available. Perhaps you know that the father’s name is John Smith and 23 checks indicate that seven of the Mary Smiths being investigated had fathers named John. You have narrowed the search considerably but are doing several times the work that would be required for a less popular name. Only having other documented information such as parents’ names, street addresses, sibling names, accurate birth or marriage data and other given names, ideally at least two, separate your Smith, Jones, Brown, Taylor, Wilson or Johnson ancestor from the dozens born the same year.

The Thames River, the City of London, Middlesex County: as seen in England (top) and Ontario, Canada (bottom).

Passenger Arrival Records
There is a tremendous desire on the part of researchers to find and document the arrival of their first North American ancestor. Many researchers have been deeply frustrated by their lack of success and have come to believe that the records are simply not available. The assumption often made is that since the ancestor was living in New England then the place of arrival had to be Boston or New York and research efforts have been centered on these ports. The fact is that New Orleans, Charlotte, Savannah, San Francisco, Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, Saint John and other ports were frequent ports of disembarkation for our immigrant ancestors. Not many American researchers would think to look for their immigrant ancestor, who first turned up on a census in Boston or New York, on the Canadian passenger lists. However, the ports of Halifax, Saint John and Quebec were the ports of arrival for many of our ancestors whose ultimate destination was Boston or New York.

Tremendous resources have been and are being expended in an effort to document the arrival of immigrant ancestors in North America. A massive undertaking to index Ellis Island immigrant ancestor arrival records by the LDS Church is scheduled to be available in part on CDs later in 1999. In eight volumes, the New England Historic Genealogical Society has reproduced and indexed classified advertising placed by those searching for lost Irish family or friends. The Learning Company, under its Family Archive CD label, has produced a CD titled Passenger and Immigration Lists Index 1600s-1800s. In addition to these newer resources, there are also many other older, printed passenger arrival sources including the excellent multi-volume Passenger Immigration and Ship Lists and Peter Wilson Coldham’s The Complete Book of Emigrants.

We need more precise information before we commit our precious research time on goose chases that can have us searching not only in the wrong city, but even in the wrong country.

This article originally appeared in the July/August 1999 issue of Family Chronicle.