Arley and Cousins, That is a very good point. I was going to ask the list yesterday this question. Don't know if anyone knows but I will give it a try. I was reading my birth card yesterday, and on it, it had a birth number. Does anyone know what year Birth Numbers started? Also, I believe there is a death number. Does anyone know when death numbers started? Thanks for any help, Robin --- Arley Meadows <ameadows@dol.net> wrote: > I propose that starting right now all children born > are given a number instead of > a name. No duplications. That way genealogists in > the future will not have the > problem we are having now. > > Sincerely, > 409865326 > > DMea986657@aol.com wrote: > > > > > In a message dated 8/26/2005 3:33:51 PM Eastern > Standard Time, > > JRay38@neo.rr.com writes: > > > > AM TOTALLY LOST > > > > The problem with all this is, you have so many of > the same names who named > > their sons after themselves, then their brother > had a son he named after his > > older brother or something. There is just too > many of them. Now you throw > > into the works, the fact that they married > sisters of let's say the Aubrey > > family. Sisters, cousins, nieces. Arrggg. > > > > Back in the 1600's there were less than 4,000 > people in all of Virginia at > > that time. There were only eight counties or > Shires. > > > > So the Meadows boys married the Aubrey girls and > the number of them having > > the same names is going to cause a lot of > confusion. > > > > I've gone through this with my Ball, Chinn, and > Travers families. When you > > have families with 10 kids and back then with only > about 4000 people in > > Virginia, the odds of them married to several > girls of the same family are > > quite great. It's not like they had many choices. > There was no Main street > > to cruise! lol, Janean > > > > Amen! Amen! having this problem with > Meadows/Meador Clark/Farley and many > > other > > surnames > > > > Thanks, > > Calvin & Dorothy Meadows > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com