Genealogy Chat

When I started out on my family tree I was so naive and a bit daft (ok a lot daft ;) ) I thought 4 surnames in my family tree my maternal Fox/Binch my paternal Webb/Dodd but flipping heck them surnames are growing weekly!!!!!!! now have Linacres (however ya spell it lol) Hootons, Smiths, Lee, Hall, Watson and theyre just the ones I found out about!!!!!!!!! flipping heck how many more grandparents maiden names lol, im getting so confused.

Assuming people only marry once, - and assuming they don't marry people with the same name as someone else in your tree, then the number of names will double for every generation you go back... 2 parents 4 grandparents 8 g-g-parents 16 Gx2-g-parents Of course - that does assume that you don't have any ''father unknown'' entries!! Christine

It does get very confusing if you are doing a total tree rather than just following one line. The names double with every generation - 2 parents, 4 grand parents, 8 gt grand parents. I've found 29 of my 32 gt gt gt grandparents now. I think I've a fair memory of the different names and how they are related but then I sit in a records office looking for Manley family and get sidetracked when I recognise another of 'my' surnames, - only to realise that my Buntings or whoever were from a totally different county so these ones can't be mine.

Judith.....where do your Buntings come from? Sorry to interupt, Angela......! Merry

Husband's Welsh lot have half the surnames of the English side - there are so many Williams, Thomas and Evans! nell

Hi Merry, They started in Birdbrook, Essex in the 1700s then moved to Cowlinge in Suffolk

Hmmmmmmm........thanks Judith! Mine are from Oxfordshire!...... Merry

phew thank god it aint just me lol, I didnt even realise it'd get this confusing (even more confusing to me anyway is my 2 great great grandads ones called Arthur Hooton ones called Arthur Linacre ones from nottingham ones from yorshire im always getting the 2 confused lol) Luv Angie xxx

Hi Angie, Sorry to go off course but where does your Dodd family come from. Thanks Denise.

Think of me, my 8yr nephew is very interested and wants his tree done, unfortunately his mother is my half sister, so only half my tree is any use, and then there's his fathers side ...... how many names is that!!! Mavis

I don't wish to worry you, Angela, but I have 1,063 different surnames on my tree ........and I'm sure others will have more than that!!! lol Merry

I get very confused Angela, but it doesn't take much to confuse me. I have Gibsons that marry Parks...Fothergills that marry Parks.....Parks that marry Gibsons. they were all farmers in the same area of Westmorland......talk about keeping it in the family......oh..and they all have the same first names. Jean

Just my direct ancestors are From the North of England Cockbone, Weatherald, Nelson, Lowson, Caygill, Clarkson, Guy, Dinsdale, Cock, Tyson, Adamson, Pearson, Heron, Carr, Carpenter, Clement, Davison, Taylor, Close, Rushforth From Oxfordshire Freeman, Harris, Randall, Leech, Plant, Darby, Truby, Busby, Peerman, Cherry, Brown, Templer, Holloway, Bottrell, Parker, Hinson, Bayliss, From the Isle of Wight Downer, Burt, Rayner, Godsell, Payne, Gattrell, Jacob, Joliffe From the South East (mainly Sussex/Kent) and London Langley, Sotcher, Hurst, Shelle, Court, Mant, Knight, Stringer, Steele, Haddox, Havens, Barton, Whitby, Tickner, Williams, Alchorne, Baker , West, Phillips, Shadwell,Branch, Johnson, Bateman, Jessop, Scriven, Monk, Medhurst, Quinnell, Mitchell, Rye, Dunn And from Wiltshire Whittle And I think there are still a few more I haven't put on this list yet.

Evening Gramps, Is the first name on your list a real one lol, I have no names as good as that one. lol

Yes it's mine for sure. It would have been my Surname if 6th ggparents had married earlier. Lol

Sorry to butt in! Nell - I can't believe you haven't got any Jones' yet!!! Would you like to borrow some? Yvonne

Just be thankful you don't have any ancestors from the Lake District hamlet of Watendlath - in the 1950s it consisted of the extended family Tyson. J

First names that get repeated through the generations are a confusing thing too. I have a John Gray whose children were Mary, William, Sarah, John, Elizabeth, Robert, Samuel and James. Eldest son William married a Mary and they had children called William, Mary, Sarah, John, Elizabeth, Samuel and Robert. This pattern is repeated with other generations and siblings. I also have two of the Robert Grays marrying an Anne, and two Samuels marrying Elizabeths! Fortunately two daughters married men with unusual surnames, and then blow me down, one of the daughter's sons married the other daughter's daughter (ie cousins married). I got quite excited when I found Octavian Gray, but of course he is illegitimate and I have no idea where the mother (Elizabeth) got his name from. He certainly wasn't her 8th child!!! nell

Yvonne Yes, I DO have Jones too. I have John Jones, whose son Evan Jones had a daughter, Margaret Jones who married an Evans! My father-in-law was the eldest of 7 children. Two of the daughters married men surname Rees who weren't related. One of them had a son called Lyn who was in church when the banns were called between Lyn Rees & Lynne Rees, neither of whom were connected to either of our Rees! I think there must have been a special Welsh tax on names as they used so few of them. The only interesting first name I've found in husband's tree is Isaiah. All the men are called John, Thomas or William with the odd Evan. The women are all Margaret, Mary or Jennet. Just to make it easy to trace them, they forget which COUNTY they were born in between censuses, never mind which parish! nell

Now concentrate... James Holden marries Margaret Slater - bachelor and spinster. She dies. James Holden, widower, marries Mrs Margaret Slater,a widow. Mrs Margaret Slater, the widow, was born Margaret Holden. She married the brother of the first Margaret Slater. Mrs Margaret Slater, widow, dies. James Holden, widower for the second time, marries Margaret Holden, his second cousin. HER grandmother was Margaret Slater - but not any of the above Margaret Slaters. James Holden had children with all three of these women, some of whom already had children of their own. So there are three children named James Holden, three named Margaret Holden, two Annes, but one is Anne Slater Holden, except she never uses the Slater bit Shall I go on? OC