We've all had it happen during our research ~ run across a record where the name is the same but it's not clear that it's referring to the person with that name that we are looking to trace.
Sometimes there's an error in a record that leads to confusion. Sometimes a record initially doesn't seem to make sense when compared to other records that might be the same person.
So, how can a researcher confirm that the conflicting records refer to the same person? Often the answer is to look at other, less commonly used records or to look at other relatives, as the records about those relatives may have further details that clarify just who was who.
A few examples after the orange doodle....
Case # 1: Abigail Buffum
Based on her death record and repeated in genealogies of the Bill and Buffum family, it is fairly clear that the Abigail Buffum who married Samuel Derby in 1808 in Salem MA was the daughter of Joshua Buffum and Mary Bill.
From the Middletown CT vital records:
Abigail Buffum, daughter Joshua and Mary, born 3 April 1792
From the Salem MA vital records:
Abigail, d. Joshua and Mary, bp. Mar. 6, 1803. C. R. 4.
Abigail, and Samuel Derby [jr. int.], Nov. 9, 1808.
Abigail Buffum Derby, daughter of Joshua Buffum {born in Salem} and Mary Bill {born Middletown CT}, aged 85 years 5 months, born Middletown CT, died 1 September 1877.
But what about that baptismal record in 1803? Most Congregationalists in that time and place were baptized as infants. Is that record for the same Abigail Buffum or another one?
Joshua Buffum is likely the man of that name in the 1800 census in Salem MA who had one adult female and one female under ten living with him.
Mary Bill Buffum [described as of Middletown CT in the marriage intention] remarries in 1802, to Nicholas Lane ~ she died [Mary Lane, daughter of Sol and Sarah Bell {more often Bill in other records}] in 1854, so Joshua evidently died not long after that census return.
Mary {Bill} [Buffum] Lane and Nicholas Lane have a son, also named Nicholas ~ who is baptized on 6 March 1803.....the same day his older half-siblings Samuel and Abigail Buffum.
So I'm guessing that the baptismal record is indeed for the Abigail Buffum who married Samuel Derby. It seems likely that she wasn't baptized as an infant (lingering Quaker sentiment in the Buffum family?), so when her mother had another child, all three children were baptized.
Case # 2: Dayton Clark
I found two men on the 1920 census in Philadelphia named Dayton Clark. The details are similar, but not exact. One man or two?
So I poked around a bit more.....
That further research led me to a 1919 passport application....where Dayton's address is one of those on the 1920 census, but his father is listed at the other address that appears on the 1920 census. Unless I find further records that contradict what I've found so far, I'm fairly confident that the two 1920 census entries refer to the same man.
Case # 2:James Jamieson
My great grandfather Peter McGee, later Jamieson, was awful with names. He gave almost right names in many records where he was the informant.
When Peter's adoptive father James Jamieson died, Peter said that James's parents were Thomas Jamieson and (--unknown--) Hislop. I search extensively for such a couple, but couldn't find one. In the 1820s in Scotland, many but not all marriages were recorded in the OPRs (old parish registers), so it seemed quite likely that the record didn't exist.
On the other hand, there was a Robert Jamieson in the right time (1820s-ish) and place (Leith, the port city for Edinburgh) who had married a woman named Janet Hislop... could they be James's parents?
This was a a case where following up on other children ~ siblings of the person I am most directly interested in ~ paid off.... James Jamieson and Margaret Guthrie's oldest known son was Robert Guthrie Jamieson (not surprising that that's what they named him ~ both of his grandfathers were named Robert).
But it's the next generation that provided the link. Robert Guthrie Jamieson and his wife Elizabeth Gale had a son ~ named Ebenezer Hislop Jamieson ;-)
So it seems highly likely that the James Jamieson who married Margeret Guthrie was indeed the son of Robert (not Thomas) Jamieson and Janet Hislop.
My guess ~ Robert Jamieson died at some point before (haven't found a death record yet) Janet Hislop married Gavin Chapman in 1844. Peter McGee Jamieson, who seems to have not been very good with names, wasn't born until 1861 and joined the family in the 1865 to 1870 range. When asked to come up with a name for his father's 1893 death certificate, Peter managed to remember the name of another relative ~ his grandmother's brother, who died in 1879, and was a minister, so likely talked about in the family. Close, but not accurate.
Do you have a case where persistence paid off? Where researching siblings or other people not in your direct line clarified information about your ancestor?
Or where you concluded that the various records were about two (or more) people with the same name?