Dear Cousins, The theory of research I have developed is based upon the equation that Kinship + History + Locality = Identity. When I started out developing the theory, I used "Names" as the first ingredient. But, I soon found that the names are not always accurate identifiers. The mispellings, miscopying and typos are fairly easily understood in secondary documents. But, "When is a Name Not an Identity? " In the case of my Maryland Penningtons, quite often. Using the equation, I found that my identified Penningtons who settled in Belmont Co., OH came from the midst of batch of Pembertons in western Baltimore County. If you remember A.A. Milne's "Winnie the Pooh" you'll recall: "Mr. Edward Bear, who lived in the woods under the name of Saunders." So what was this bear's "real name" and why did he love "hunny," not honey? I think, like our ancestors, Mr. Milne wanted to keep us on our toes. Or make us strong, like the "Boy Named Sue." I have found Penningtons living under the name Peddington, Peniston, Penn,Pendleton, Penton, Payton, and others you just wouldn't believe, in addition to the most traditional variant, Penington. The statement is often made by family members, (who don't understand the process,) "so and so changed the spelling of the name when his part of the family moved to Georgia." Or some variant on this theme! But, that is not really what happened in the majority of these variants. We are usually aware of the way names evolved in the original countries. John the Miller became John Miller, and John who lives in the Woods became John Woods. And John the son of John Woods became John Wood's son, and eventually John Woodson. Although there are some names that WERE changed, (most often in the case of immigrants from countries using patronymics,) variants usually come about from mispronunciations and misspellings. The mispronunciations usually come about in an original document (contemporary with the individual) and the misspellings usually come about from secondary sources such as indexers and copyists who can't read the writing, or who made typos, or both! The other myth about variants is that there is a "correct" way to spell the name. Because we now work with search engines that rely on a certain spelling for names, this becomes a very great problem when we use computer generated indexes, or gedcoms or internet searches. The great "middle America," formed out of the "Backcountry" pioneers, was the primary stewpot for this odd name variant problem. These people, although designated as "English," Scotch-Irish," or German, etc., quickly hopped into the genetic stewpot and ruined those stereotypical designations. We have to be careful and clever to recapture their Identities. 1. Misspellings in Primary Records People didn't value correct spelling very much in colonial times. No, wait! They didn't value it at all! They wrote what they heard. Their English ear and English hand had a hard time with Native American, Dutch, Scandinavian, and Middle European tongues. And Vice Versa. Usually it was the English pen writing the names because the colonies soon became English oriented, and English speakers and writers got the jobs that required keeping records. Very simple. But even then, English spelling was not standardized. Many people didn't write at all, some wrote when they were young, but factors of aging deterred them in later years. So records got distorted, and nobody was checking to see how the name was spelled. 2. Common Family Names used in each cousin's family over several generations. In both my Smith family of Hanover County, Virginia and my Pennington family of Maryland, John is a primary name. Yeah! John Smith! John Pennington isn't as bad, except if you have John Pemberton living at the same time and in the same locale. Then throw in some John Paintons some John Pemistons and a couple of John Penstons. Which brings us on to how people tried to use qualifiers as identifiers. 3. Surnames used as forenames If you rely on naming patterns, you will go wrong. Yes, colonial persons often used naming patterns. But as soon as you believe that they ALWAYS did something or another, you will find they deviated from it. Surnames of grandparents are used as often as the surname of some other close relative or dear friend. As people moved on they retained their connection with their kith and kin through the names of their children. We often find when a child with a family name died young, another child was also given the same name. Names were given as tokens of respect and honor, as in the case of John Pennington of Bohemia, who named two (living) daughters "Sarah." When his first wife died he remarried to Mary Othoson. They also named their daughter Sarah, and I am convinced the reason was to honor John's deceased first wife. John refers to his daughter Sarah in his will and then states, "Sarah, the daughter of Mary," as a means of identifying the second Sarah. We have (John) Atkey Pennington, the son of Mary Atkey and William Pennington. This individual is sometimes John, and sometimes Atkey. In the next generations the name is again used by descendants and we have John A. as an identifier. But not always. And even though a middle name is often used as an identifier, if a nickname or initial is sometimes substituted, we still don't know the true identity of the person. My Alfred L. Watts is always referred to in documents with the middle initial, and even though he lived in the 19th century and died in 1904, which is lately, by many reckonings, I still don't know what name the initial identifies. 4. Women's names. The way women are treated and regarded is an identity killer, and it didn't go away in Colonial times. I got madder each year as I was continually identified each successive year with HIS name, and the appendage "and wf" on our tax bills. These are just a few of the major kinds of genealogical problems in which a name is not an identifier. The means of determining the identity lies in taking a fact about your John Smith, and beginning to compile a kith and kin list around the fact. I hope to have a webpage up soon (maybe tomorrow if the check is in the mail today,) which will help you to start doing this, and I will be including some census listings for Beej's Burton's as an example. Love, Your Cousin, Carolyn Carolyn McDaniel cmacdee@teleport.com ========================================= --- Visit American Crossroads --- http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads