There is a Henry Smith Sr. and a Henry Smith Jr. in the same location and place. Do not assume they are father and son–one may simply have been older than the other and the “Sr.” and “Jr.” designations had more to do with relative age than with being relatives. They could have been related more distantly than father and son or not even related at all.
Do not assume that if a man named James Rampley had a son named James that the son James is the oldest son of James the father. It does not have to be. I have two ancestors named James Rampley who both had sons named James and neither of the sons were the oldest ones.
2 Responses
There are other confusing duplicate name situations, as well.
My father, born in 1904, was named after his mother’s beloved father, William Onahan G. My grandparents died years before I was born and we didn’t live near any other members of the family, so I knew only a few tidbits about my father’s people. I was therefore confused when beginning my genealogical research to find that my grandparents’ son, William Onahan, was born in 1899. And died 5 years later. There must have been some mistake!
It turns out that the first offspring of my grandparents were twin boys, one of whom died at birth. The other was named William Onahan. A couple of years later another son was born, named after his father, Daniel Vincent. [Another case of second born becoming Jr.]
In 1904, little William Onahan died a few months before my dad was born. Dad received the exact same name as his late brother, I guess because my grandmother really wanted a son named after her father.
I’ve since heard that this was not a rare practice back when infant and child mortality was higher.
You are correct about re-using names for children. In some areas and time periods the practice was fairly common.