Why Should You Listen to Me?

Dan Clark, winner of the American Spirit Award, 5 March 2017, said that there are only three questions:

  1. Why Should I Listen to You?
  2. Have You Done it before?
  3. Are Your Currently Doing It?

And I agree that these three questions mean a lot in genealogy. Why should you listen to me? Actually because the answer to the other two questions  is YES! I have done whatever I suggest to you. and Yes! I am currently doing it now. I use the forms and timelines I suggest you use. I search the records in the same order that I suggest you do if you want to be successful.

I do the math–always do the math. A man cannot marry a wife who is 200 years younger or older than he is. And he can’t marry a woman who never came to America, if that is where he spends all of his life.

Remember the popular song, “…he lived on the morning side of the mountain and I lived on the twilight side of the hill. We never met…”

What makes these kinds of challenges possible is the creation of massive databases with information from several countries all mixed in together. Even rare names do not ensure that you have the right lineage. My husband has a name of considerable identity–Alma Dorus Eakle, Jr. The name was originally Sissonalmadorus. Then we get Sisson and Almadorus. Then we get Alma Dorus–two of them. Try it out–check FamilySearch.org for this name–there are generations of them.

In the new issue of American Ancestors (Spring 2017) that just arrived in my mailbox, there is a Cape Cod family with an ancestor named Shearjashub Bourne. Actually, four of them on the descent pedigree of Richard Bourne, 1610-1682. There is no indication of gender–descendants do not come down from these persons.

Is it Martin or Martine? Used interchangeably in many records in Louisiana. But, the records are giving you some evidence–consider that the name is pronounced differently than just Martin. Not every difference in the records is a misspelling by someone who did not know the name.

So Why Should You Listen to Me? My experience was and is and will continue searching records on a wide variety of backgrounds. When I encounter a difference I take the time to explore it and what impact it has on the pedigree that I am tracing. Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle http://arleneeakle.com

PS And I suggest that you check out the differences too–much of the time, the difference is the clue!

 

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