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Nothing challenges a genealogist more than having to research ancestors with common names or the same name as others in a community. However, there is a path forward, if you’re up for the task
Common name ancestors differ depending on the locality you’re researching. I thought Effingham Townley would be a unique name, but in New Jersey in the early 1880s, that name spread far and wide.
Common surnames include Horowitz, Smith, Long, Johnson, Andersson, Garcia, Kelly, Kowalski, Schneider, and so on. And that’s just the surname.
When you add the first name of Lukas, Mary, Sergei, Brigetta, Pierre, Yassin, David, and Sarah, you are really trying the patience of a family historian.
If you’re willing to be methodological and patient, you can puzzle out those pesky ancestors sharing the same or common names.
Did I lose you at methodological or patient?
Simple Steps for Researching Common Name Ancestors
Although the steps are simple, the process of researching your common name ancestor will take time. Just be sure to leave some hair on your head when you’re done!
1. Create an Ancestor Fact Sheet
A name, a birth date, and a birthplace are not enough to distinguish one Charles Gordon from the next.
Take time to build a reference fact sheet for your ancestors. You can use genealogy software to keep track of your facts or USE THIS WORKSHEET.
Think like a detective and piece together the who, what, when, and where of your ancestor.
“The more ways you can identify your ancestor, the better you’ll be able to tell him apart from the other people with the same name.” Amy Johnson Crow
2. Reprove the Research for Your Common Name Ancestor
Through decades of genealogy research, I’ve discovered that you must repeatedly reexamine your supporting documents.
Just because I thought I had the correct source 5 or 10 years ago doesn’t mean I have the right records.
Reprove the facts you have gathered for your “Charles Gordon” by reviewing each source as if for the first time.
What records do you have?
What do the records actually say?
Do you have the correct records?
What doesn’t make sense?
Sometimes, when we reevaluate our gathered records, we suddenly spot errors. Perhaps we have confused the B.S. Smith who married Eliza Gordon in Ohio with the one who married Eliza Gordon in Alabama.
If you’re lucky, you won’t have to proceed further. If not, remember to proceed patiently through the next steps.
3. What Records Are You Missing in Your Genealogy Research?
When we do genealogy research, we often don’t examine all the available resources. We do this due to limited time and money or because we don’t know where to look.
In a past video, Elissa Scalise Powell, Co-Director of the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP), says, “Hope is not a Research Plan.”
Let’s not hope we can find our ancestors; let’s be methodical and explore the records we might be missing. Here’s a shortlist to examine. (If you have other suggestions, let me know in the comments section.)
Passenger Lists and Border Crossing Records
Court records
School records (like Yearbooks)
After exhausting these common records for your common name ancestors, think outside of the box. Explore coroner’s reports, correspondence, business, criminal reports, business associations records, and asylum records, to name a few.
Be sure to explore the easy genealogy records that all genealogists should be investigating first. Then, explore the FamilySearch Wiki for additional records to research based on the location where your ancestors lived.
4. Construct Your Ancestor’s Community
After researching the records directly associated with an ancestor with a common name, you’re sometimes stuck. When that happens, you need to venture into advanced genealogy territory and reconstruction of your ancestor’s community.
Who makes up your ancestor’s community?
This list of individuals will make up your ancestor's expanded network. Advanced genealogists call this group your ancestors' FAN Club (or cluster genealogy research).
Extended Family (nieces/nephews, aunts/uncles, cousins, in-laws, and beyond)
Neighbors
Friends
Business Associates
Military Unit Members
Social Groups
Create a list of community members by making note of:
Who did your ancestors buy land from?
Who are the godparents of his children?
Who lives nearby, according to a plat map or a census record?
Who did they serve with?
Who are they worshiping with?
Who are they in business with?
What names appear in newspaper social columns with their name?
Who is suing them in court?
Once you know who is in your ancestor’s community, fully research that individual. Go so far as to build the associate’s family tree.
You might feel like you’re going on a wild goose chase, but you’re on a methodical genealogy mission.
However, don’t build the family trees of potential non-relatives in your genealogy software programs or paper files. Instead, build their tree and attach relevant records using FamilySearch.
Albert Noethlick is part of Joseph Geissler’s Community (and might have witnessed Joseph’s naturalization records). He isn’t a relative, but my abandoned research is available on FamilySearch.
By building the family tree of your ancestor’s community on FamilySearch, you can abandon your research on these individuals at any time. Additionally, you helped another researcher with your valiant efforts.
Research Additional Community Members for Your Common Name Ancestor
Sometimes, you have to dive even deeper while researching your ancestors with similar names to those in your community. To crack through brick walls, you might have to:
Click the strategies above for more details about these advanced genealogy research methodology techniques.
↪️ Are you looking for more genealogy resources?
Grab your copy of these FREE Genealogy Research Guides.
5. Use Analytical Tools to Process Your Common Name Ancestor’s Facts
When researching ancestors with the same name as others in their community, sometimes a pedigree chart or ancestral fact sheet is not enough.
A genealogy clue web begins simply and expands to include complex details. Watch this video on how to create a clue web.
This timeline tool is available from RootsMagic.
Learn more about using the FamilySearch Timeline feature.