Genealogy Chat

Before I started my family tree malarky I knew zilch about family past (dad being adopted mums parents both passing away 2 weeks & 8 weeks after I was born etc) Now after doing research its turned proper weird that all us kids (including my mum her brothers sisters and onto us kids of the above) have all named our kids after other long gone rellies without even realising it!!!!!! seems so strange to me.

Sounds really nice!! I hope the ancestors are ones that people want to be named after!! It is strange how things pass through the generations - my family tree shows the number 3 (!) - majority seem to have had 3 boys or 3 girls - and the 4th child (if there is one), is always the opposite.

The more you find out about your ancestors the more strange co-incidences you come accross. My gt Uncle went to sea with his father age 16 jumped ship in America and disapeared for a while. My brother went to sea age 16 jumped ship in New Zealand and disapeared for about 4yrs. Suzanne

oh god dont tell me about it, ive researched my family to 1780 but its so difficult trying to find which branch of the family is really mine, because they named there children after brothers ,sisters ,and cousins where also given the same names,it was a nightmare trying to sort them out,didnt they have minds of their own? couldnt they think up some different names,do they realise what confusion they caused? if i see another james in my tree ill scream.xx

LMAO I really cant wait to see my great great grandchildren try and work out mine, I look like the daughter in law of a husband whos parents names arnt even the same as they should be but really theyre my parents (so confusing lol) ive recently discovered where i get my musical talent and love for music from (no one in my family are at all musical) which is so wierd and ive also just been shown a pic of my great great grandfather which was truly amazing :)

If you are wondering why families seemed to all name their children with the same names. Its because of the English naming pattern 1700-1835. Not always in the correct order for some families. Margaret

Thanks for the info Margaret. I didn't know about the English naming pattern. Have just been reading about it and now I know why I have names repeating over and over again in my tree. Deb:)

'Old English naming pattern'? Not heard of this. What is it? Where can I find out more?? Bx

I would like to read about it too! I just tried googleing it but can't find anything :( dizzy

FOUND IT!! http://arms2armor(.)com/Genealogy/names1(.)htm remove brackets!

no what you mean, i used to do a lot of dressmaking and i loved it,i even did a long distance corrispondence course and got a diploma![have'nt done any for a while now] then when i started to do my tree [that's what i love doing now!] i found that my G.G.Grandmother was a dressmaker!! and so was her daughter G.Gran! also, all my rellies were ag.labs, and my son loves gardening and growing things and he has an allotment and grows veg, he's got a real interest in it!!!

I have noticed this and also one of my favourite names is Isabella which has come up quite a few times in my family tree

I've found that repetition of the same key names in each generation, especially if people were 'considerate' enough to follow the naming conventions of the time, can be really helpful in trying to identify ancestors, particularly if their names where a little unusual for the time. I think it is quite lovely for people to name their children after family members and I think it's sad that this tradition is all but gone. I and some of my relatives have said that if we had known more about some of our traditional family names earlier, we might have given them to our own children.

For those who are curious: 1st son = was named after the father's father 2nd son = was named after the mother's father 3rd son = was named after the father 4 th son = was named after the father's oldest brother 5th son = father's 2nd oldest brother or mother's oldest brother 1st dau = was named after the mother's mother 2nd dau = was named after the father's mother 3rd dau = was named after the mother 4th dau = was named after the mother's oldest sister 5th dau = after the mother's 2nd oldest sister or father's oldest sister Deb:)

Gosh I wish some more of my families had followed this tradition, it would have been very helpful. They just used the same names ad hoc, in no particular order, so we ended up with three Emmanuel Worners born in three years and two or three Christopher Eccles in every generation !!! At least the first Octavius Worner WAS the eighth son, but his nephew Octavius wasn't. Di