Hi Teresa Good topic... Since you used the magic word... assume... I had to reply. Personally, assuming has turned out to be disappointing in a lot of my searching. Maybe being aware of, and even taking notes on, the naming habits of our families would be a better way to keep things in perspective. Granted, there absolutely were common practices, or idiosyncracies, in naming, but the bottom line, for me anyway, is that I wasn't there, and don't know just exactly who did it, why, and how. Sometimes things make sense, after all the other building blocks have been put together and we can stand back from the picture and see how it all came to be. Given, or Christian, naming has been somewhat of a pet project for me, mostly unknowingly, as a result of studying my 4g grandfather, Moses Phelps', where to and why for... All the given and surnames that I have been able to associate to him have taken me into diverse ancestries that, otherwise, I wouldn't have considered. (In modern given naming, all bets are off, but you already knew that... <grin>) There was a great deal of heritage in naming a child, but, back then, I'd have to say that there was, by far, a greater cohesive nature, all around, in families, than what we see today. With the rat's nest that I've been trying to untangle, regarding just Moses Phelps, there are probably a few factors that would cause my assumption to turn out factual, like physical proximity, grandchildren given naming, and things like that. With enough extenuating circumstances and good and clear circumstantial evidence, I do pull people into my family tree. It sounds like you have that kind of evidence... It's a difficult chore, and pretty aggravating at that, when a "branch" of say, 30 or 40 people fall off the tree... Hindisght is 20/20 vision, for me, regarding Christian naming. Good topic John