different father names with same wife and same children???

Question

I am sure you have experienced this, and I need help in how to proceed to sort out the truth. I am finding with my Boyce line that when I get back to 4th and 5th G grandfather. I find a number of different first names for the man, but often the same woman as wife, and the same children. Same dates of birth and death in many cases. There sometimes are different places involved. And a couple of lines show completely different father and mother, but the same children as shown in the other lines. We are talking of the time period of the late 1700's and early 1800's. So census records don't help a lot, I have not been able to find information on land ownership on line for the states and counties involved. I need ideas of how to separate the wheat from the chaff as it were. I am not finding wills. Of course I am doing all this all online. Suggestions appreciated.

Answer 1

Getting clear and decisive genealogical answers for any period of time can occasionally present difficulties, but more so with the 1700's and 1800's from my experiences.  I suggest creating "Research Notes" sections for each of the questionable profile pages, so that your thoughts are clarified regarding status of findings-so-far, questions, and rationale for current family relationships.  The "Research Notes" section can be just typed into the profile page with two equal signs before and after the words, like this:

== Research Notes ==

I suggest making sure to include sources / references for each line of thinking in your research notes, so you and others can more quickly reassess the matter upon viewing the page at a later time.  I recommend using the <ref> and </ref> code which is easy to place at the end of each line-of-thought, such that the source backing up that line of thinking is immediately relatable to those facts.

With regard to how to proceed forward with your Boyce line, one thing you didn't yet mention is whether you've run Google Books searches for various family member names.  I've sometimes broken through brick walls from these time periods when I've found someone in a book written close to that time frame (in this case, the 1800s or very early 1900s).

Good luck!

Answer 2

Cynthia's suggestion of Research Notes is great.    

One other way to sort fact from fiction,  see if some of the facts and relationships seem to be from more reliable sources?    For example:   Is there a rootsweb tree that provides some detail AND sources.   Try contacting that  family tree manager for more facts.   

Actually,  I've contacted some "tree" managers that posted information and they freely admitted there were no sources and they didn't remember where the facts come from.

If you get stuck,  leave it for a year and there might be more posted on the internet in the future. It took me 5 years to break  my gg grandfather's brick wall because I added these  "pauses".

Best of luck.