Discussion of Middle Names
Mary Hubbell - Aug 3, 2011
Billie Harris brought up middle names today and I decided to share some examples of problems I've seen while researching. Billie is right - it was rare to have middle names before the Revolution. If you see middle names out of place, a warning flag should pop up to be careful when dealing with this person - there might be other problems.
No need to completely re-invent the wheel so here is an article about middle names:
http://www.genfiles.com/legal/MiddleNames.htm
But then why do people have middle names when it was rare?
Obviously, maybe they actually did have the middle name. It might have never been used on a record but just passed down orally. Anyway we look at it - at least keep a note that there might be a problem - or where the source of the middle name was found.
Here are a few ways I think Middle names were invented in records and some examples:
1. Transcription error. Example: John B. Irey. No records have been found supporting it. We were able to trace it down to one online genealogy. The submitter was contacted and asked for documentation. We were told "My mother would not lie to me!" and they refused to discuss it further. We suspect it is a transcription error of some old notes: Irey, John B 1757. (John born 1757). We've asked Irey researchers for years to keep an eye out for a document with the middle name and all that are sent to us are - you guessed it - the original online family history where we found it. Be careful when you see B., D. or M. as middle initials.
Another transcription error that comes to mind is the use of secondary sources. Always try to find a copy of the original. I can't tell you how many times I've found what were thought to be middle names are actually additional children once you see the transcriber dropped commas when they typed out wills or custody papers.
2. Computer error. Sites like Ancestry.com can be very helpful but it can also be a nightmare. Not only does it make it easier to perpetuate a person's error but their computers can make up a few of their own. One Family Tree sometimes uses a computer to guess what people should be combined into one person. Sometimes it is a match but at least twice in my line it was a blunder - now one of my ancestors suddenly shows up online with a middle name and a new wife! Looking closer I notice the new wife was born 40 years after they married. Now I have to go online yearly to try to undo the error (wishful thinking).
3. Match/Merge 'who cares'? - You're dealing with tens of thousands of names you received on a gedcom and you're tired. The computer asks you Match/Merge? You've looked at the options and you can't find a definite answer. It appears a child was called one thing in one record and someone else has a different name. Let's keep both names and look into it deeper in the future. In the meantime you send out copies of your files which includes the 'guesses and errors' and others take it as fact.
3. Researcher notes. Before online family trees we kept our notes on paper. Every time we found the name spelled differently we kept record of it. Lists of similar children but names not filled out completely - why not guess. Joseph or Josiah, Mary or Marcy. James or William? Sometimes these middle names are the result of someone's notes. They knew what the note meant but others might not. I have an ancestor that is mentioned as James in his father's will but seems to be called Willie. We record him as James William Walker. Did he have a middle name? We've never found proof. But adding the William helps people know they are looking at the right Walker when they are researching. I keep an explanation in the notes.
4. Early research techniques. Some people actually would put the father's name after the child's name to help keep track of which line the child belonged to. If they didn't note that and weren't around to explain it, later researchers could assume it was a middle name. Just as an example: perhaps Anderson Grant Lewellen meant Anderson son of Grant for someone.
5. Wishful thinking and not much else - Gee, my Stanley Washington was born and died around the same time as George Washington. I bet they are the same person and his name was actually George Stanley Washington.
Mary Ann
Billie Harris - Aug 3, 2011
Mary Ann: Thank you so much for posting this. It's so right! I hope everyone takes a minute to read it.
Mary Parker - Aug 4, 2011
Another comment re middle names: In the 19th century "middle names" for Irish Catholics were frequently their confirmation names. Confirmation took place around 12 years of age and the confirmation name was used from then on as a middle name. My maternal grandfather used his confirmation name as his middle name.
For John "S." Llewellyn, I am starting to believe the "S" was adopted - or even accidental. There is no record anywhere of his middle name and, on his naturalization papers, his signature is an "X" (mark). The census records state that he could neither read nor write English. I have assumed that his native language was Welsh. Whether or not he could read and write Welsh, he could not sign his name.
Billie Harris - Aug 4, 2011
And sometimes, too, if it's a copy of a document, /s/ is written as a way of saying "signed" followed by a typed name of the person. Or at least that's the way we did it years ago when I worked for attorneys. On the copy of the document, we'd put /s/ and the name. I would say that might be the reason for the John "S" but since he could neither read nor write, that's probably not the case. But back in the 1700's and 1800's sometimes if a person couldn't write, they would just make the initial of their last name and someone else would write the name for them or they'd put an "x".
Mary Hubbell - Aug 5, 2011
Or it could be his 'mark'.
More recently - thoughts for some future researchers. Many Mormon girls aren't given middle names. The intention is for the surname to become the middle name to help research. But the thing I found fascinating back when I first started doing research is that in the state of CA you had to have a middle name at least during the '70s. During that time I knew a couple of adult men who only had an initial for their middle name. Trying to make small talk one day I asked what the initial stood for and was surprised to hear "nothing". They had been born in a state that didn't insist on a middle name and when they moved to CA the DMV told them they had to add at least an initial.
Marlea Llewellyn - Aug 8, 2011
Yes Billie this is true. We still do the /s/. This began when their were to be so many copies made. It is the true way to distinguish between an original signature and secondary copies. All parties were to have copies and the original to be placed with the court. Before copiers and stamps that said copies, they would write the contracts or land transfers and wills and everyone would sign upon agreement or completion. A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write which gave them the duties of handling business and history records for kings, nobles, temples, and cities. Then scrivener would take the orignal and rewrite copies from it and put the /s/ indicating that it was a scrivener copy of the original signed version. So if there were any errors and changes needed to be made, Amendments must be made only to the original... Same holds true today. Can you imagine how badly cheated those non-readers were, before advocates were assigned.
Mary Hubbell - Aug 5, 2011
The 'red herring' middle name that sends you on a wild goose chase.
That's the wonderful middle name that you assume is a clue to another line. Nancy VanAlstyne Treadway. John Butler McAlpin. Then you find out they lead no where except to a friend or historical figure.
I have one that has to have a story behind it. My grandfather's brother was William Williams Rakestraw. Their father's name was George William Rakestraw, William named his son George William Rakestraw - my grandfather always told me his brother was a jr. I knew his brother's name to be 'Bill'. So, William made sense - but William Williams??? I thought surely someone made a mistake, he was George William, Jr - BUT when I started to find records, there he is - recorded as William W. Rakestraw.
His son told me his dad was named after a great great grandfather whose name was Williams Rakestraw. I've done the genealogy - that's not a fact. We do still have a few other lines that need more work so maybe a Williams will pop up an surprise me someday.
Carol Redd - Aug 8, 2011
Mary,
Williams is a well-known last name in my circles. We mostly "skirt" around with them in all the census, but they seem to have migrated w/ my Brooks out of Newberry, Edgefield, Anderson and that area of SC about the 1830s into NE TN. Before that my Brooks were in VA, but I don't have any really direct lines to trace that contain Williams. It is a very well-known name in E. TN, though.
Just as an example, I was looking at some Hood lines in Knox Co, TN. They appeared before The Hon Thomas L. Williams in 1847. I came upon this just as I was typing an email to a client by the same name. Odd how names catch your eye when you're into genealogy.