Tracing Family Trees

The Name Game -- Tracing Family Trees Through The Records

As you probably know, not everyone is great a keeping records. Unfortunately when it comes to tracing family trees, there is no exception to this rule. Often, immigration records and census records, which are a vital part in tracing family trees are inaccurate or misleading in a lot of different ways. Below are a few things to watch out for when tracing family trees.

Misspelled Names: The Bane of the Researcher

Over the years, at the height of immigration to the United States, thousands, if not millions of people crossed the ocean to make a new life here in the United States. Often, names were recorded on the ships manifest long before the vessel ever left the port of departure. Once they arrived here in the United States, inspectors took that manifest and checked it against the people waiting to enter into the United States. So, unlike the myth that seems to prevail throughout our recent history, the majority of the times, the name was not changed at Ellis Island; but was altered during the naturalization process.

One of the things to watch out for while tracing family trees is that often names were changed in their spelling, but not how they were pronounced. For instance, a name as simple as Stevenson, could be spelled a number of ways, including Stevenson, Stephenson, and possibly even shorted to Steveson. These changes, of course, were not made to further confuse the later descendants, but took place because of the legal idea of
Idem Sonatum. Basically this says that if someone can pronounce the name in the same manner as the one on the document, they can establish a connection to that document, regardless of spelling of the name. Given this power, many names were changed inadvertently in their spellings to something a little easier to spell. By knowing that there could be a few variations on the name that you are looking for can make tracing family trees a little bit easier

Taking A Place Name
Of course, not everyone kept their name when they traveled over here to the United States. Occasionally, someone will change their name to something else, as a sign of their rebirth to a new country. Often place names are used, such as various coastal cities and towns, as well as the town of their birth. So the next time you spend some quality effort tracing family trees and run across a name that seems to have a geographical flavor to it, remember what you read here today.

(c)  Genealogy - Tyler's Articles 2006