Researching Common Surnames

I was recently contacted by an individual wanting to sponsor research on their family with a surname of Miller. I’ve done a fair amount of planning and research on common surnames and thought I’d write about how finding the right information for a family with a very common surname requires different research methods.

First of all, you have to establish that the surname your performing research on is a common surname. Names like Smith, O’Brien and Miller are definitely common. You might go to your favorite search engine and search for “most common surnames” which will give you a variety of web sites which convey the most common surnames.

I use another quick method. I just surf to my favorite genealogical search engine and enter the surname to search one of the U.S. Federal census. Almost any year will do, but for the purpose of esstablishing surname commonness, I like to start with 1880. If you get like two million results from your search, you most likely have a common surname, and then my friend.. the rules change. Let’s say the family you’re looking for is one Abraham Miller who has a wife who’s name is Mary. Doing a search for this family can easily result in hundreds of resultant families with the exact same given names.

When you have a surname that is not common, it’s fairly easy to find your target family. One can fairly quickly identify the correct family using the normal mthods – looking at the children’s name, their ages, the location they’re living in, the parents ages and birth locations and so on.. However, when you have a very common surname, one must look additionally at middle names, the street and address the family lives at, the occupation, where the parents of the individuals were born as well as other factors based on what is known of the ancestor your searching for.

I like to create a table, and then take all the candidates who are close matches and evaluate each based on what we actually know about the indivduals in the family. If we know the birth year, then that becomes an attribute. If we know the occupation that becomes an attirbute. Once you have all the attributes for evaluting each record, you simply place a checkmark into each attribute that is true. You can also use a number. While there can be exceptions, the record having the most checkmarks or the highest numeric score is generally the best fit.

Once you get a “best fit” family for a given census year, the next step is to search another census to find the same family. What you’re trying to deterime is when the family arrived in the area they’re living in and how long they remianed there. Once you can do that, you can then take a look at other records to help validate that your target family is indeed the family you’re looking for. Other records, might include newspapers, city directories, voter registrations, probate records and so on. Also, the longer a family is in a particular area, the more likely they are to be written up in the local newspaper or in a book detailing the history of the county.

I hope this helps you with you search. You’ll need to take more time and dig deeper to successfully research a family with a common surname in order to validate continually that the records you’re looking at are indeed for the family you’re interested in.

Third Time’s the Charm

Sometimes it takes a few times before something sinks in and becomes ingrained as a part of one’s research methodology. These learned behaviors have to be experienced – for some of us more than once.

While searching for my GG-Grandfather Isaac Preston, I was unable to find him in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census record. The family had been in Ohio circa 1820s-1840s and subsequently migrated to Illinois. I finally found a biography of one of the family members which indicated they migrated to Iowa for a few years. Working with the local Genealogical Society in Lee County, I found that my GG-Grandfather had died on the migration to Iowa and that his widow, Sarah Preston had remarried to one Robert McNair. Finally, after years of searching, I found the family in the 1850 census record with my GG-Grandfather listed not only as a female, but also as Isaac McNair! I was so elated when I found him; vowing to remember that sometimes, people’s surnames were changed when mother remarried.

A customer engaged us to find her ancestry. She knew the family lived in San Francisco and some of the names of her ancestors, but nothing more. Her surname was Campbell. Her GGGrandmother’s name was Josephine. In addition to Ralph; Josephine had also given birth to Ralph’s brother Robert and sister Fern. She also knew that Josephine had been married upwards of seven times.

We almost immediately found a California Death record for her Grandfather Ralph Campbell which listed the date he died, as well as the date his was born (August 8, 1909) along with his Mother’s maiden name which was listed as Burdick.

Searching the census record, we found a record for Josephine Burdick, who was born in Illinois. The family had migrated to Iowa and on to California. We found her as the wife of William Campbell in the 1900 Census in Siskiyou County, California. They had just been married (2 years) and had no children.

We could no longer find William Campbell in the 1910 Federal census record, instead finding Josephine, married to Ralph Randall. We knew it was the correct Josephine due to her age, her birth state listed, her indication of where her mother and father were born and the fact that living with her and Ralph Randall were children Robert and Fern Campbell. We also knew from the California Death Record that our Ralph Campbell should have also been with the family in this census because he was born in 1909. Instead, we find a Ralph Randall Jr. who is the right age. Curious! Was our Ralph Campbell really born as Ralph Randall Jr.?

Searching California birth records, we found nothing for Ralph Campbell nor Ralph Randall Jr., but we did find a birth record for one James Randall who was born on August 8th, 1909 to a mother with a surname of Burdick. In obtaining a copy of the birth certificate from Sacramento County, they indicated that this birth was written in a book, and that no other details of the birth exist.

In searching the 1920 Federal census record, we again find our target Josephine and establish her identify by her birth state, her age and the birth states listed for her mother and father. In this record, she is listed as Josephine McNeil, now living in San Francisco, having no husband and with three children living with her - Ralph, Fern and Robert Campbell.

Regarding Ralph Campbell - based on the evidence collected thus far, we have a person, who married and died as Ralph Campbell, and who was listed in the Federal census record as Ralph Randall Jr. in 1910 and who was born officially as James Randall. Oh my! My customer was rightly asking, “Am I a Campbell or a Randall in reality?” Again, I told myself that, “when researching, one must always consider that the surname of the children to change when the mother remarries” – and vowed not to forget that lesson!

A customer recently engaged us to find his Great-Great Grandparents in Iowa. He had been searching for months and could not find his family earlier than the 1900 U.S Federal Census record. He knew his Great Grandfather’s name, but not his parents.

The first thing we did was validate the information he already had; and sure enough, there was our Henry Thomas Mallory in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 census record. He had died in 1923 and so was not in the 1930 record.

Henry Thomas Mallory was a laborer. In two of the three census records, he was listed with his wife and children with his occupation designated as a Laborer or Farm Laborer. In the 1910 U.S. Federal Census record, the enumerator had written “NG 0-0-5” which means his occupation was not given and that he had five unemployed dependents. In all three census records, Mr. Mallory indicated that he was born in Pennsylvania, and that both his mother and father were also.

In his obituary, our Henry Mallory’s family said he was from Pennsylvania, that he had been born in 1840 and that he had migrated into Iowa with his family when he was seven years of age; arriving in Muscatine County; and finally that he’d been married in 1878 and migrated to Howard County after his marriage.

The first Federal census we should find him in is the 1850 U.S. Federal Census or some earlier Iowa State Census record. We focused our efforts at finding him there. We found a lot of Mallorys, but not our Henry so we pressed on to the 1860 Census record and again found nothing, even though we used different spellings of the surname, a Soundex search and different age ranges. Hours were poured into the search fruitlessly.

Finally, he was found in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census with a misspelling of his surname and a different initial for his middle name – he was listed a Henry P. Malorie and was living with his family in Howard County, Iowa.

A search of Civil War records indicated that he and his brother George had served as “substitutes” in the 10th infantry, company A. They had enlisted in 1864 and were mustered out in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1865 as the war ended. They served in the Union’s push to the sea and in marches through the war-torn Carolinas. A look for a Civil War Pension file resulted in nothing other than a pension card with a number on it. This was not pursued further because we didn’t feel that it would lead us to an understanding of who Henry’s parents were; and this was the research objective.

Next we looked through local newspaper records, finding many articles about the family visiting relatives, being sick, falling down, as well as the obituary of Henry’s wife and other family members. While these were valuable clues to the family, they did not contribute further to our knowledge of Henry’s mother and father; nor help in finding Henry in the 1850, 1860 or 1870 Federal census record.

Next, we took every Mallory person found in the 1850-1920 census records and recorded each; along with all of the details contained in each census record onto a spreadsheet. We then determined a probable age range for Henry’s parents given that his obituary indicated a birth year of 1840. Once we had a probable range, we sorted the spreadsheet so that we had every Mallory in Iowa that was born within the appropriate age range. We then further filtered our list so that we only had people within this age range who were born in Pennsylvania. This gave us about 50 candidates for Henry’s parents.

Using these names as our base, we went through biographies contained in published Howard County histories. There were biographies of Samuel Mallory, William Mallory and several others. Using these, we were able to further refine our list by eliminating individuals until we got down to about 25 candidates. This was good, but we still had a lot of candidates and only a few of them seemed like good fits.

Finally, we searched the Iowa State census records; first looking for our Henry and brother George. We found an 1856 State census record that had a Henry and George of the right ages. George was listed as being born in Iowa and this fit what we knew, but the surname for the family was Vandenberg and not Mallory and the Henry listed in this record was enumerated as being born in New York instead of Pennsylvania. The mother’s given name was Freelove, also born in NY. There were no other good candidates found in the state census records and so we looked through county vital records and found that a Freelove Mallory married Oliver Vandenberg in 1850. Wow! This was the smoking gun! Freelove was a Mallory and these boys, listed as George and Henry Vandenberg were in all likelihood George and Henry Mallory!

A search of the 1850 Federal census found the family in our target Iowa County, again listed as Vandenberg boys but each of their middle initials was listed a M. which was not their middle names but we surmised stood instead for Mallory! Finally, the 1860 Federal census record was checked and sure enough, the Vandenberg family was found, with Oliver and Freelove at the head, three other Vandenberg family members who were new children to the couple and finally George and Henry “Vandenberg” listed again with a middle initial of M. We had them! We ended up making contact with both Mallory and Vandenberg descendents in Iowa and providing our customer with the rich tapestry of new found family.

Once again, after this exhausting search, I reminded myself, that many times CHILDREN’S SURNAMES ARE CHANGED WHEN MOTHER REMARRIES!! Hopefully, the third time will be the charm!

Gregory