For me anything before about 1750 is pretty murky and the records are harder to find and confirm

  • mbirth@lemmy.mbirth.uk
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    6 months ago

    It’s even worse when there’s another Robert James in the next village who married their village’s Mary Smith and all their 10 kids are also named any possible combination of these 4 names.

    And you only realise it because one Mary Smith can’t have 2 Robert James (Jr.) a month apart.

    • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Yup! Also, my last name was spelled differently and was apparently pretty common, so that makes it even more confusing.