I generally mention in my query that I am interested in Martins from Devon, England -- or wherever they were located -----Original Message----- From: Kenneth Martin [mailto:bacdoc@earthlink.net] Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 1:42 AM To: martin@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [MARTIN] Martin Surname I have run across a problem with many of my surname searches and I am asking everyone for advise on how to best avoid this problem. As many of you have probably found out, there are MANY different Martin clans that are not related to each other in any way. With Martin being such a common name, it is easy to be tracing a person and find out later that they have absolutely no connection to your family whatsoever. This could mean hours of work for nothing. Recently, I have followed two lines of Martins that were not related to me, and the way I found out (down the line) was that they were slaves, and took on the Martin name of their owner. (Still not sure if the owner was related) Is there any proper way that we could post about our ancestors, and note if they were of any general group (English, German, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, American Indian, Swedish, French, etc) without hurting anyone's feelings? Providing this information on this list could help someone find a link or may help someone that is traveling down a dead end path of searches. Suggestions for solving this problem would be appreciated. Ken Martin No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.9.0/851 - Release Date: 06/16/2007 12:50 PM