Thank you Pam and Jim, Both of your links to the specific posts within that thread are very informative. One can certainly get a good feel for Ms. Mills opinions regarding naming patterns. What I take from it is that she does not necessarily deny that they exist (she mentions that she has seen them within certain specific groups), but that she's more concerned with the fact that there has not been enough rigorous testing or study of the subject, and that the notion of the existence of such patterns has simply grown in acceptance somewhat organically. In other words, people believe they exist only because enough people over time have claimed that they exist (which is probably true for a lot of concepts). I think that the core of her argument is that the use of naming patterns as genealogical proof should not be accepted unless, or until, a scientific study has first been completed that does demonstrate that the pattern being used as proof does in fact exist. Thanks again, Chris On Jul 21, 2010, at 10:46 AM, Pamela J. Sears wrote: > Hi Chris, > >> Pam, Jim, et al, >> >> I'm curious, has Elizabeth Shown Mills published a "study," or at the >> least, her arguments against the existence of naming patterns and/or >> their usefulness when conducting genealogical research? If so, where >> would it be found? >> >> Chris Chester > > > According to on-line sources (such as the results from a Google > search), > Elizabeth Shown Mills is the author of 13 books and over 500 articles > that have appeared in magazines and/or journals. > > Jim Brady referred to her opinion ("study") on naming patterns as it > relates to baptismal sponsors, which is addressed here (and also > includes some of her books): > > http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/APG/2005-12/1134357258 > >> P.S. >> I suppose I should cite my source for those statistics above <g>. See >> . . .Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Family and Social Patterns of the >> Colonial Louisiana Frontier: A Quantitative Analysis, 1714-1803" >> (Senior Thesis [Honors], University of Alabama, 1981), 202. > > > Beyond that, I do not know of an article or book that is specific to > naming patterns, so you'd have to do some further research, or at > least > follow the APG thread cited above. > > A debate between Elizabeth Shown Mills and Patricia Law Hatcher on the > validity of naming patterns was planned at one of the regional ASG > conferences (back in 2008), but was canceled due to scheduling > conflicts. > > > Regards, > Pam > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and > the body of the message