Remember that not all associates of your ancestor are the same. Some may have been more connected to your ancestor than others. I’m doing a little research on a man who was an associate of two of my unrelated ancestors.
Based on what I have found, the man they had in common was more closely connected to one than to the other. He and one ancestor lived as neighbors in Germany and in two different counties in the US and he testified about my ancestor’s farm operation after my ancestor died.
The other ancestor appears in an estate settlement for a woman for whom the associate was an executor. Neither man was related to the woman (I’ve looked into that) and, based on what I have discovered, their connection as associates in this case is because they both happened to know the deceased.
You should track ancestral associates–particularly when you are stuck on an ancestor. But associates are not all cut from the same relationship cloth.
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