Regarding the use of Jr. as an addition to a name - more recently it has been as you say. It means "son of someone of the same name." However, a little farther back, it was merely used to designate the younger of two people who had the same name, living in the same area. Before the days of social security numbers and drivers licenses and other forms of ID, they had to have some way to differentiate people legally, and this seemed to work for them. It sure confuses us though! I have someone in my line who called himself James A Bailey Jr. when he lived in Washington county (he dropped that when he moved out of the area), but I just keep finding more and more reasons to believe his father was most definitely NOT James A. Bailey, certainly not the James A. Bailey who was calling himself "Sr." Lisa in Wisc. > >Surname: ROBINSON, HOPKINS >------------------------- > >Thanks for your response, Anne. My Robinson family might be >related to the family that you mention; however, my James >Robinson's name was James Robinson, JR so I am assuming that >his father's name was also James. >