[Genealogy] Percents, Farmers, and More

[Michael John Neill]

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12 February 2026
Genealogy Update

** Percents that Do Certain Things
** In Defense of Descent from Farmers
** Full-Text Searching at FamilySearch Webinar
** Unsubscribing



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Percents that Do Certain Things
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One often sees comments like these made on various blogs, mailing lists,
etc.


X% of families followed the pattern of naming the first born child after
the paternal grandfather.


I’ve never found statements like these particularly helpful from a
genealogical standpoint. Tendencies like these are clues and clues are
sometimes helpful, but they aren’t hard evidence of a connection.


One reason is that often these statements are made without reference to any
study in which they were “discovered” or what analysis was done to reach
the conclusion regarding why the percentage is accurate, etc. The source of
the statement is often one missing element in these posts. Numbers without
data to back them up are truly meaningless.
Even if there is a study to back up the number, one always has to wonder
how the study was conducted, how samples were obtained, how random the
samples actually were, how representative of the entire population the
extracted items were, etc. etc. Is the study really applicable to my
research, the family I am working on? Were certain records used that
inherently have some bias or tend to only mention members of a certain
socio-economic group? That always makes me wonder how applicable the
percentage is to my research.


And therein lies the real problem.


Let’s say that 75% of families from a certain ethnic background name the
oldest son for the paternal grandfather and that this statement comes from
a repeatable study that is done using sound research practices. What does
that mean for me and my research? It means that I can use the oldest
child’s name as a clue as to who the paternal grandfather is. That’s it. It
is not proof. And frankly it really doesn’t matter from the standpoint of
my research whether the percentage is 60%, 80% or 95%. I can use the fact
that there is a tendency to possibly guide my research, but personally in
most cases, I’m better off using local records and sources to guide my
research.
And rarely does anyone who makes claims provide any documentation of where
the number comes from. What about the citation of sources in regards to
numbers as well as genealogical facts?

Statistics are intended to help us see general patterns or trends for
groups as a whole. Genealogy is about proving what happened in specific
instances.
----------------------------
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----------------------------

   - Midwest Genealogy Center-Independence, Missouri, May 2026
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   - Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, March 2026
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   - Allen County Public Library, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, September 2026
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In Defense of Descent from Farmers

-----------------------

I’ve been thinking about this post for some time.

There was a post on a genealogy mailing list a while back that indicated
several celebrities were not asked to be on WDYTYA because they descended
from generation of farmer after farmer. Woe to them—poor fools. The post
was essentially based upon rumor (I think), but it got me to thinking. The
stories they use on WDYTYA are rarely about “common” people. The stories
are always something “dramatic,” either an involvement, a cause, a war,
someone leaving his current family and starting a new one, etc. The
ancestors they use for stories on WDYTYA are never homesteaders toiling on
the Nebraska prairie, Ohio pioneers breaking the sod in 1810, or
Mississippi farmers living a hardscrabble life in apparent anonymity.

As if there’s no drama in everyday life and as if all “farm” ancestors are
boring.

As the descendant of generations of farmers–and having been raised on one
myself–I take exception to the thought that’s it somehow boring to descend
from generation after generation of farmers. I’ve made something of a
genealogical career writing about these “common” ancestors, the vast
majority of whom were farmers of both the male and female persuasion. I’ve
never been ashamed of where I was born, where I was raised, or who my
ancestors were.

*There’s the farmer who returned to his native Germany* in his sixties and,
based upon land records and a little reasoning skills, set three of his
sons up in farming before he left. Not many people leave their entire
family in the United States in 1869 to return to Europe.

*There’s the farmwife who stayed on the Nebraska homestead* during the week
while her husband worked on the railroad. She and four children under the
age of seven home alone on the prairie during the week living in a soddie.
There’s a story in their homestead records.

*There’s the farmer in Colonial Virginia* who brought alcohol to an
election and was censured by the Virginia house in the 1740s.

*There’s the farmer who probably never owned more than 80 acres* in his
life who when he died left it mortgaged. The widow owned a small house and
lot in the nearby town. The judge declared the home “worthless” simply so
it wouldn’t be sold to pay the mortgage and she’d have some place to live.
That farmer forty years earlier was working as the hired man for his future
mother-in-law and in 1902 testified in her Civil War pension application
about the work he did, what he was paid, and the operation of his
mother-in-law’s farm–in vivid detail with several others.

*There’s the Maryland farmer whose farm was confiscated* during the
American Revolution because the owner was a British subject and the
farmer’s lifetime lease made no matter. The land was sold by the Maryland
Assembly to pay debts regardless of protests raised by the farmers on the
land.

*There’s the Kentucky farmer who was arrested *in the 1820s for threatening
to murder one of his neighbors.

*There’s the German immigrant farmer* who in his sixties learned to read
English–he was already literate in German but decided it was time to take
up the new language.

*There’s my own grandfather (another farmer)* who, in the depths of the
Depression when times were hard and money scarce, sold hog houses he had
built to help his younger sister pay her college tuition so she could get
her teaching certificate. This is the same man who refused to purchase a TV
and soda as a “waste” of money. Of course the flip side of this is that in
the 1950s he spent several thousand dollars on a bull at a sale and when he
brought the animal home and told Grandma what it cost she “had a fit.”

Oh, and when I said “Woe to them—poor fools,” I was referring to the
producers of the show and not those with generation after generation of
“boring ancestors.” Sometimes we see in others what’s really in ourselves.

And that’s probably enough…I’ve got to get back to work…

-----------------------------

January 2026 Full-Text Search at FamilySearch Webinar

-----------------------------

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Michael John Neill
Genealogy Tip of the Day

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