I am working on a surname study for a particular family in Brooke County, [West] Virginia 1800-1840. My goal is to place everyone in the correct family by analyzing census, tax, land, probate, marriage and court records. It is proving to more difficult than I had hoped. As with may families, they all named their children with the same set of given names. My questions is this: 1) Does anyone have a good example of a project like this? I would love to read how someone else did this. 2) I am looking for a source for typical ages. For example, if someone is noted as being appointed Deputy Constable, can I infer an age? I am assuming they would be closer to 25 than 65, but I would love a source to cite rather than my own gut feel. Or JP? Is there a typical age? Road reviewer? Overseer of Poor? Magistrate? Without vital records and limited census records, I am trying to use other ways to infer ages. Thank you in advance for any suggestions. Shannon Shannon Green | Genealogist 203-502-9584 www.greenwichgenealogy.com

I would recommend Robert Charles Anderson's book *Elements of Genealogical Analysis* (Boston: NEHGR, 2014). It discusses a methodology that might be very helpful for a project of this nature. Michael Hait, CGSM, CGLSM michael.hait@hotmail.com haitfamilyresearch.com Certified Genealogist is a registered trademark and the designations CG, CGL, and Certified Genealogical Lecturer are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, used under license by Board certificants who meet competency standards. On 10/1/2016 9:18:49 AM, Shannon Green <shangreen@gmail.com> wrote: I am working on a surname study for a particular family in Brooke County, [West] Virginia 1800-1840. My goal is to place everyone in the correct family by analyzing census, tax, land, probate, marriage and court records. It is proving to more difficult than I had hoped. As with may families, they all named their children with the same set of given names. My questions is this: 1) Does anyone have a good example of a project like this? I would love to read how someone else did this. 2) I am looking for a source for typical ages. For example, if someone is noted as being appointed Deputy Constable, can I infer an age? I am assuming they would be closer to 25 than 65, but I would love a source to cite rather than my own gut feel. Or JP? Is there a typical age? Road reviewer? Overseer of Poor? Magistrate? Without vital records and limited census records, I am trying to use other ways to infer ages. Thank you in advance for any suggestions. Shannon Shannon Green | Genealogist 203-502-9584 www.greenwichgenealogy.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message