Try and determine where your relatives got the names for their children. Sometimes this can be difficult to determine (or even guess at) and there is no way to know for certain. However, looking for repeated names or using children’s names as clues may possibly jump start your research. Names are hints as to relationships. Usually they are not evidence. Don’t always assume the first son was named for the paternal grandfather, the first daughter was always named for the maternal grandmother, etc. There may be tendencies in some cultures to name children after relatives in a set pattern, but there are always exceptions.
In the illustration, Civil War veteran Charles Hartsell names his children: Cora, Andrew, George, Louis, Cleveland, and Harrison). Andrew and George were names in the mother’s family. In this case, names that cannot be assigned to the mother’s family or to politicians (as that seemed to be a trend) may have something to do with the father’s family.
Maybe.
Some families used politicians for names of children. Others may have chosen Biblical names, maiden names in the family background, names from popular culture or contemporary well-known figures, etc. Don’t assume that the use of a first name automatically mean that there’s a relative with that first name.
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