How do I dertimine if two similar names are a match? I have no idea what I'm doing.
I have an ancestor that looks like a match, but I have no way of telling. Any tips on determining if they are indeed a match? Anna Dougherty GSLH-S4X and the new one Anne Mcdevitt (Anna) L27F-R3W. I just have no idea what I'm doing.
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It can take quite a bit of time to determine if two people should be merged.
I took just a quick look, and I vote no on this one.
Why?
Philadelphia Catholic baptisms are available on FindMyPast.com, and I looked for baptisms in the 1860s with a father Hugh McDavitt/McDevitt. I found several, and the given names match the children attached to Anna L27F-R3W. The mother's name is consistently also McDevitt. Those records would use the maiden name of the mother. Those are not the same given names of children attached to Anna Dougherty GSLH-S4X.
Then, I looked at the Catholic marriages from the same website. A Hugh McDevitt married Ann Dougherty, in 1859. AND a Hugh McDevitt married Ann McDevitt in 1866.
Two different families.1 -
That's my initial thought too its not a match. I have noticed that various dates sometimes don't match though. Especially in the 1800s.
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The general rule is - if there is any doubt, don't merge. I can't tell you how much time I've spent undoing bad merges made by contributors who think everyone with the same name is the same person.
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When you're trying to determine if two people are the same, it's best to think about what you know about the person. Who were their parents? Who was the spouse? When and where were they born? Where did the person live? Does all the information match between the two people? If not, is there a good reason why it wouldn't match?
Here is a FamilySearch Wiki article that goes through some techniques to identify your American ancestor:
Looking through your two people quickly, I can see a couple of glaring issues. The children of Anna Dougherty and Hugh McDavitt are not the same children listed for Anna and Hugh McDevitt. Because of their ages, it's possible all the children belong to one family, but then why were they not all listed with the family in the 1880 US Census that was included in Anna's sources (The Anna with no surname)?
The dates of birth and death between the two Anna's don't match up. Neither do the dates of birth and death for Hugh McDavitt and Hugh McDevitt (the husbands).
Anna Dougherty only has one source, so it isn't known where these dates came from on her profile. So it's a possibility that her dates are messed up. The only way to know for sure is to research her. You could start with the research helps found on her person page.
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