Question

why 2 children of the same first name born 1 year apart by same parents, but different middle names?

Comments

Do you have a profile ID or URL to share with us so we might investigate the sources and see if the child is a duplicate??

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Thank you for responding so quickly. This is my quandary. I see James U.(Uriah) Douglas(s). b.1838 Tompkins county, New York d.1917. Then James H. Douglass b.1841 in Hectory, Schuyler Co. New York d.1924. Father of both: Sydney Douglass b. 25 Dec. 1815 Scotland and Mother: Catherine Rumsey b. 1817. In the 1850 Federal census for Newfield, Tompkins county, New York, James U. is now Uriah James. Now James Uriah married Mary Frances Rumsey, and that becomes another can of worms. The other James married also but not Mary Frances Rumsey. I am related to the Rumseys ,but would need a lot more space for telling that tale of 2 Frances or Mary Frances Rumsey. I'm rambling, and probably confusing. Thank You again.

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Cheryl can you tell me where you are finding these individual profiles at?? I am having trouble locating them on WikiTree's family search engine. If you have the Profile ID # or URL it would be more helpful. Take James Douglas born about 1838. His profile # is Douglas-4710 with an URL of http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Douglas-4710. But he was born in Scotland. All the other Douglas born about that time do not have death dates nor from New York, and Mary Frances Rumsey is not listed . Are you finding these on Ancestry.com or somewhere else??? 

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Dorothy, Yes most of the information comes from Ancestry, and other internet sources . Thank you for checking.

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I'm afraid that is the root of the problem. No website, not even WikiTree, is more than a guide to research: you need to check everything with original, preferably primary sources. (For example, a death notice is a primary source for place and date of death and name of surviving spouse, but only secondary for date and place of birth.) The difference between us and them is that we encourage, even insist, on your including a link to your source if not an image of the actual document or gravestone.

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Double post, a year later.

Answer 1

Possibilities:

1. First one died before the second was born. (It was fairly common to reuse the name of a child that died young.)

2. It's the same child. Just inconsistent records.

3. Not entirely uncommon for parents to use the same name twice with different middle names.

Comments

Thank you for the information.

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I have one single family on my tree who had 4 children who died within a few months from something and they named all future children the same names. 1st time I ever saw it, thought it was so bizarre.

Answer 2

Genealogists have to make decisions based on evidence and probability (as in a curt of law). They can be wrong. All such decisions should be flagged as e.g. possible, probable, highly probable.

Comments

That's what I thought , too. Thank You

Answer 3

I would double check the parents. James U and James H may very well have different parents, but different people associated both Jameses with Sydney, probably because they didn't find another likely candidate.

I know there are 2 Charles in my family with a common grandfather, but so far I can't tell which father belongs to which Charles.

Comments

Thank you. The mystery goes on.

Answer 4

George Foreman has five sons named George. He is not the first person to name all of his sons after himself.