Julie, I know this question was not for me, but I thought you'd be interested in a similar situation in my family. My gg-grandfather was one of 14 children who all produced large families. GG-granddad was number 9. The naming convention was used (with some variations) by most of the first 12 children. You can imagine how confusing it was beginning to get by the time my g-grandfather, Josiah, was born....there were already 9 Joseph's in the family and 9 Janes. Some of the later grandkids began to have the names as middle names. So, here are a few possibilities. 1. There were too many Samuels by the time your ancestor had sons, so he opted out. 2. It was a middle name that may not have been recorded in the documents you have. 3. It was a first name, but the he went by his middle name 4. (This happened in my family) If there's a substantial gap between children, perhaps "little Samuel" didn't live past infancy. That's where I finally found the Alexander I was sure should have been in the family group.....a distant cousin sent me a picture of his headstone that had been found in the back yard of the family home. He was two. All the rest of the family was buried in the local cemetery. 5. The grandfather, Samuel, may have been going by a middle name to prevent the same confusion in his family. 6. Maybe there was a tiff.....but I'd bet it's one of the other reasons. Good luck, Joan Hunter Essex, Ontario Canada -----Original Message----- From: JParks1393@aol.com [mailto:JParks1393@aol.com] Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 10:11 AM To: Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [Sc-Ir] Question for Brian I have a question for Brian re: naming patterns. My ancestor, Edward, born 1856, named his father as "Samuel" on his marriage license and other documents. While Edward went on to produce six sons, he didn't name any of them Samuel. He named them Edward, John, James, William, Thomas, Joseph, respectively. He also had 3 daughters, which did follow the Scotch naming pattern. "John" would have been his wife's father, and his wife's father's father was an Edward, also. Since I have only documented him back as far as his mother and father, I don't know if his father's father was Edward. My question: isn't it very strange that he wouldn't name one of his son's Samuel after his father? Would that indicate a tiff in the family? Thanks for any opinion you might offer. Julie Parks Searching: Parks, Finley, Doherty, Donnelly, Flynn, McAvoy/McEvoy, Mahoney Hettrick, Cassidy, Donahoe/Donahue, Timmons, Winrow -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.10/189 - Release Date: 11/30/2005