In some areas, during some time periods, families we “re-use” names of children who had died as infants or small children.  Don’t assume something is wrong if your ancestor has a child Geske born in 1754 and another one in 1756.

It’s probable the first one died.

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5 Responses

  1. My great grandfather who was born in Canada has the same name as his oldest brother who died of cholera after it broke out on the ship when they emigrated from Ireland.

  2. Mama Mia, that happened a lot in Italian families! My grandmother was named after a baby that died. She was 13th out of 14 born, and some of the older siblings had recycled names too. In the Italian culture, it seems that using a name of a deceased sibling was an honor and a blessing.

  3. But be careful of more than one child with the same name if the first child born is still alive when the second one is born. I have been finding this in my French Canadian ancestors and it’s usually something that needs correcting.

  4. My Pabst family had one son named “Christian.” This was the only name used for him in all the records. He may have had other names, but I’ve not found any. Another son was “John Christian Ernst.” This whole name (or the initials) was used in the records for him. I know this is two different people as I’ve traced the generations after them. Many German people had several names. This really makes for confusion!

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