G2G: Question on Samuel Donald Stout (1834-1874) What source did you find to confirm his middle name?

Question

Regarding Samuel Stout ...On Find-A-Grave somebody has written that his middle name is David, while I find records on WikiTree (and perhaps RootsWeb) which indicate his middle name was Donald.  What source confirms Samuel D. Stout's middle name?

Answer 1

On two of his childrens death registrations Samuel's middle name is given as Donald, His Find A Grave entry says David, however the actual gravestone only gives his middle initial of D. I did not see a census document or death registration for Samuel that would clear this up.

We can rule out the Find A Grave source as unreliable as the headstone image does not confirm the middle name. There has not been a birth or death registration found for Samuel as yet. The census documents so far do not give a middle name other than his initial that I could find. The death registrations of his children are done by family but could still be an error either by the family or by transcription.

I would rely on the death registrations of his children for now, until proven otherwise by a stronger document. I would certainly discuss this in Research Notes on the profile, mention the alternate name of David there and mark the middle name of Donald as Uncertain in the information boxes of the profile.

Answer 2

I did some work on Samuels profile, found this Ancestry source. Could someone with an Ancestry account run it down and check to see if Samuels middle name is mentioned in it. 

Not A Link - Disregard the http:// - I used link function as their is no Paste function here

http://Texas, Wills and Probate Records, 1833-1974; Ancestry.com, Item Description: Probate Records, Vol B, 1874-1890

Comments

Here is a link to a search for Samuel Stout in the Ancestry source mentioned above: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2115/?name=samuel_stout . To make it into a link, you type the text you want to turn into a hyperlink, then select that text and press the button above the comment editor which looks like an infinity sign or sideways 8, it's in the center below the left align icon and to the right of the A icons.

I glanced at the records. It seems he died in a time and place where initials were in vogue. He and pretty much everyone involved in his estate seem to be identified only by their initials, except in one case where I think I saw a Mary E Stout. But don't trust me on this, as I did not read the documents too closely. 

FTR, I'm with you on the interpretation of the middle name. Until there's any contradictory evidence, I would trust the death records of his children, especially if two different children both show that name for their father.

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Hi Daphne, the one thing you cant do when in G2G typing an answer or comment is to right click and paste something into the box. Sure wish Tech would find a way to do that!!

To get around that I insert the text into the link box, which is why I said Not a Link..but maybe confusing I guess.  

I don't have an ancestry account and the Will is a citation only, not a link. I was hoping someone with Ancestry membership could see if they can find the document and add a share link to the citation in the profile.

Thanks for your input, agree on the years where it was all initials, how did they keep anything straight I wonder!

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I'm sorry to inform you that it does not appear that he left a last will. Here is a deposition of his widow and others testifying to that (though the scribe seems inclined to refer to him as S.B. at times, this is in fact part of his record). https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89QS-21BZ?cat=koha%3A25668&i=1390&lang=en

As far as I can tell, the Ellis County records that Ancestry has are all available on FamilySearch, so that you and everyone else who doesn't have an Ancestry account can read them and cite them, etc.: https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:25668

Edit: the volume you were asking about is "Vol. B (p. 1-307) 1874-1890", film # 1,651,905

Texas, Probate Records, 1800-1990 › Ellis › Bonds 1874-1890 vol B, [https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9QS-HTHW?cat=koha%3A25668&i=0&lang=en image 1].

The index page pertaining to S.D. Stout is on [https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9QS-HYX3?cat=koha%3A25668&i=21&lang=en image 22], and shows his estate has an entry pertaining to a bond on pages 13-14, and to the heirs thereof on page 42.

[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9QS-HTRJ?cat=koha%3A25668&i=34&lang=en page B:13-14 / images 35-6]

and

[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99QS-HTFJ?cat=koha%3A25668&i=49&lang=en page B:42 / image 50]

Nothing here about his middle name or even that he was named Samuel, but between the case file from my earlier link and these entries from the probate court bonds volume, it seems there are some useful documents here for his genealogy in other respects.

EDIT2: fixed image numbers when I realized that directly navigating to these links automagically sorts the images out of their film order and into a numbering system specific to the physical volume, so hopefully now the image numbers are now stable.

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Thank you Daphne!