Genealogy Chat

How many of your ancestral families have had two children given the same name? There is a possibility that one of my ancestors had a younger brother christened with the same name.

Now I have plenty of babies dying and a subsequent child being given the same name but only one other occasion where two children in the same family had the same name so I thought it was time to ask the experts (that'd be you lot) how often you've found this anomaly.

Yes I have two brothers both called James and born one after each other.with a 2 year gap When I saw them on the 1881 census i thought it was a mistake but later research found that there was the two, one James Herbert and the other James Joseph ,I would think they would be known by their second names to distinguish between them

My great aunt had two daughters named Teresa about 10 years apart.. Strange lot my family.

Thanks Shirley and Jacqueline. Any more out there?

I have

Mary and Mary Ann.
Both recorded in one census as Mary Ann (eldest) and Mary (younger). Then....
Mary Ann died and Mary was recorded in later censuses as Mary Ann.
I needed to buy four certificates to sort that out! 2 birth, 1 death and a marriage and they weren't even my direct line :-(

And another two families, different lines, have both an Eliza and Elizabeth alive and recorded in the census together.

My lot never make it easy for me :-)

Chris

My father and his sister were given names of siblings who had died. They were born in 1905 and 1912 respectively. I have other instances in different generations too.

my dad had a sister called Nancy who died as a baby - when the next little girl arrived they children all said we have another Nancy, so Nancy she was called too - seemed to happen a lot back then

Thank you all. I won't be able to prove this one (yet) but it is looking more likely.

I have two John's both born to John and Elizabeths. Now the surname isn't spelt the same but I'm fairly certain it's the same family (I've found something like 20 odd spelling variants for them so far)

There is also the possibility that the couple married after having had children from a previous relationship. So John Smith, with a son Thomas, married Jane Doe, with a son Thomas. Both take the name Smith, as was common, so you end up with two Thomas Smiths in the same family.

Also bear in mind that people changed their names to suit. So Thomas Smith could decide he was John Thomas, after his father, and Thomas Doe could decide he was Edward Thomas after his father.

I don't have instances of this in my family - but anything is possible.

People also got confused about their names (remember they were mostly illiterate). So while it might be unlike to get two Mary Ann's in the same family in 1851, when they marry they both call themselves Mary Ann, when one is Mary and one is Ann.

Nah, it don't help do it?

"And another two families, different lines, have both an Eliza and Elizabeth alive and recorded in the census together."
Eliza and Elizabeth are two distinct different names. However bad writing and/or transcription often gets them confused.

In my families that have two children genuinely same name, one turned out to be a step child and another turned out to be a sibling's child who had been adopted.

I can offer a James William and a William James in the same family - very un-imaginative!
--
Dave

My mother had a brother called John born in 1921. She already had a brother called John born 1918 and alive and well. The new baby only lived for one day so I can only surmise that Granddad called him John on the spur of the moment. He had a wife still in bed after the birth and 5 small children to care for; add to this the neighbours calling in, the doctor....poor man must have been at his wits' end.

I've got a very puzzling family amongst my lot - obviously Roman Catholic - I can't weigh up whether they were very devout or lacked imagination:

Mary Ellen Hurst (who had a younger sister named Ellen Mary!) married John Tickle, and produced Margaret Mary, Ellen Josephine Mary, Joseph, Mary Elizabeth, Mary Magdeline, John Joseph and Mary Winifred.

And that younger sister Ellen Mary married a Thomas Tickle and had Mary, Margaret Mary, Thomas and Joseph John! The parents of Mary Ellen and Ellen Mary, incidentally, were John and Margaret - and their grandparents via John were Joseph and Mary . . .

I have one family with an Elizabeth, a Beth an Eliza, and a Betty, this also cost me a fortune in certs to make sure they were different children.

I guess the parents were fond of the name Elizabeth.

I also have an Irish friend who has 15 siblings, all but one have the middle name Francis after her Mum's fav saint. The only one without Francis for a middle name, has it for his first name.

My Great grandmother had two younger sisters called Jane. The eldest Jane died as an infant so the next daughter was also called Jane. I found out this on the I.G.I. but they were Scottish so the Scottish naming pattern would have influenced their choice. First daughter named after the mother, second daughter named after either the father's mother or in this case after the mother's mother. no flights of fancy here.

G'Day All,
I have a Williamson who married a Williamson, then the father of one was named Arthur William at Birth then changed it to William Arthur at his Marriage . I had to get Marriage certs to confirm it was the right one. But tracking which ne is which is maddening

Graham