Hello I haven't found the second witness to be the Wife's family to be consistent. Not as a rule, hard to say who would be witnessing the deed. Usually family, neighbours and friends. If you look through the book of deeds on a day, one name will be mentioned several times and that may be a person also waiting to have his deed organised. I would certainly try to know who the witness was, to see if there was a clue for a maiden name. About naming conventions, it seemed to be stronger in Scottish, Italian and English names. The third child usually would have been named after a parent, but then in the early 1800's you would often get a child named for a general or statesman- and I have seen relatives name the third child after their brother or sister. If you look at the age of the children and their is a gap, you might think a child died. Can you look at the name of the children and see a pattern, or if you see another pattern. One family named every child after a famous General: French and russians as well as English and Americans. You have to wonder what they were thinking. Best regards, Gaila