Hello once more, Joan. Another thought prompted by the part of your posting below which I have left intact. Google for "naming pattern" Ireland >From the results, you will see how sons and daughters were named from OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS, by those who followed the naming pattern. Accordingly, a father named Arthur who had several sons, would expect that each of his sons would name their eldest son "Arthur" after him. Now, if you think that this might have been done a few generations earlier with a paternal ancestor named Arthur, you might be able to see how a LOT of distantly related people could have the same -- even relatively otherwise uncommon -- forename. THIS is one of the big issues in Irish genealogy; and shows how we have to tread VERY CAREFULLY whenever we feel tempted to make an ASSUMPTION about relationships, merely because we have enountered someone of the same forename. (And in fact that holds true for our genealogical research world-wide, also.) HTH some more. Ray in oz ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joan" <acadianjoan@yahoo.com> ... I'm a bit confused however. It appears that there must have been two Arthur Connollys in Cty Tyrone at the same time. From what I hear Arthur is an unusual name for this place and time. So I'm surprised to find two of them. You don't suppose that an error was made in the name of the mother on the record do you? Have you guys found errors in these records before? I recently posted another baptism, Mary Connolly, with the same parents, Arthur and Rose. She was baptised 25 Jul 1855. I have my Arthur and Sarah in Canada on the 1871 census with a Mary who was born in Ireland. Her age is listed as 12 which puts her birth at 1859. I know - it's a stretch to think that Mary born in 1855 is the same Mary who was in Canada in 1871. But what do you think? ...