Advice on if the profiles should be merged

+2 votes
204 views
I have this profile for Catharine Downing Thomas Downing-600 and there is another profile for Catharine Delameter Thomas Delameter-67.  I believe they are the same person but the last name is in question.  Earlier today I tried to merge them and it was rejected by the profile manager for Delameter-67 who then removed Downing-600 from the spouse Thomas-8619.  I have a death certificate for a daughter that states the parents as William S. Thomas and Catharine Downing. I have reconnected the profiles but fear it will be removed again.  Any advice is appreciated.
WikiTree profile: Catherine Thomas
in Policy and Style by Shannon Thomas G2G6 Mach 2 (22.4k points)
retagged by Ellen Smith

After reading the research notes on the Delameter-67 profile, I was confused -- unsure which name you endorsed. This is mostly because you said "The informant may have had the wrong last name," and in context it seemed like you might have been referring to the informant on her daughter Sarah Ann Thomas's death certificate, which is the source that gives this woman's name as Catharine Downing.  It may help a little if you clarify that note.

I added a source with link to her will. It names her children. Not sure how much that helps you.

Thank you Nancy.  They are the daughters that I had attached to Downing-600The will mentions a Garrett Delamater as well.  I have no problem with changing the LNAB with a note about Downing.  The profile manager and I are related...confirmed by DNA.  I am sure it is the correct family for this person.

2 Answers

+4 votes

This kind of conflict is more sensitive than merely a conflict about LNAB spelling, as it can affect who you and this other member connect to as ancestors farther back.  I think that it would be best to delay merging until you (ideally both of you) have pulled together and presented the evidence you have.

I have a hunch that the death certificate may currently be your only source for the name of Downing. (I have this hunch because I have a similar situation with one of my Pennsylvania female ancestors. frown)  Have you dug into the records for any additional clues that might connect the family to Catherine's birth family? I'm thinking of evidence from wills, census records that name relatives living in the household, land records that may be a family land transfer, and the like.

The other member says that death certificates for several other children of Catherine gave her name as Delameter; that evidence cannot be dismissed easily.  It's common for different death certificates to have different names for a parent, so it's a good idea to consider who the informants were and how likely each of them was to have solid information (e.g., was the informant the oldest daughter of the family who likely knew Catherine well, or was it a grandchild or a son-in-law, who may not have had a good recollection of the name?). If several of them said Delameter and just one said Downing, I'd lean toward Delameter unless I knew a good reason to go with Downing.

The other member named a bunch of sources, but citations like "1860 US Federal Census" and "Pennsylvania Probate, Wills and Probate Records, 1683-1993" do not make it real easy to find those sources. It would be helpful if they could show what it is they found in those sources that gives evidence for any conclusion.

The other member mentions DNA, which would not normally be a good clue to confirming a relationship to a 3G grandmother.

by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)
+2 votes

I'm just seeing the comments on Delameter-67 now.  Downing-600  is the profile that I created back in 2013 with the information that I had at the time.  Then Delameter-67 was created is 2022.  Yes, I did say that the last name could have been wrong. There is conflicting information on the last name but they are the same family.  I think they should be merged with a research note detailing the information on the last names instead of having the family unlinked as the other profile manager did.

by Shannon Thomas G2G6 Mach 2 (22.4k points)

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