There are times where seeing things on your screen or being able to search quickly to “figure out who someone is” isn’t quite enough–at least for me. I’ve been working on my Ostfriesen families and the similarity of the names can lead to confusion. There are times where the names Antje Jurgens Ehmen Antje Tonjes Ehmen, Tonjes Jurgens Ehmen, Jurgen Ehmen, Willm Jurgens Ehmen, and Willm Tonjes Ehmen start to run together to the point where I’m about ready to start looking for Tonjes Antje Ehmen (there was no such person). These individuals are all children or grandchildren of the same ancestral couple (and there are more similar names that are not included here).
To keep me organized and to where I don’t have to search for them in my computer database to keep them straight, I’ve made a chart outlining their relationships. I also have an alphabetical list with years and places of birth and death and they are color-coded based upon who their parent was.
Otherwise they really do tend to run together and not quite in the way several of them ran to Dawson County, Nebraska, in the 1870s.
One response
All your info is helpful but this is particularly so — I am struggling with the Polish names in my husband’s tree; there seems to me there is no rhyme or reason how surnames were alternately spelled [probably enumerator/clerk problem] and I can pretty much deal with them. The given names are problematic but I will try your wonderful suggestion rather than going back and forth from my tree. I do have downloaded or printed copies of records where the names were given. Thanks again!