Samuel Witter vs. Samuel Witter: Separating Same Name Men, War of 1812
Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL
Content
Welcome
3m 20s
Speaker's Introduction
53s
Introduction
10m 1s
Today's Problem
7m 6s
3 Basic Strategies
6m 19s
Records to Add to Our Plan
9m 40s
Using Associates
11m 10s
Study All Candidates
8m 27s
Possibilities
9m 12s
Announcements / prizes
3m 17s
Questions / answers
15m 47s
About this webinar
Online research today is immensely rewarding. Major genealogical data sites and software perform automatic searches for us and suggest documents bearing the names of people we are pursuing. However, every document we collect presents an identity issue we have to resolve before we can validly use it to build our family tree. This presentation demonstrates why, using three men named Samuel Witter whose descendants have all claimed for him the same War of 1812 service. As Mills separates the three Samuels, she explores the standards that govern our development of evidence, the Congressional laws that must guide our decisions, and the strategies needed to differentiate between men and correctly assign military service.
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About the speaker
Across a long career, Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS, has been an innovator of research methods and strategies. Published widely by academic and popular presses, she edited a nationa...
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Comments (67)
This is one of the very best presentations I have ever seen on genealogy. I thought I was doing reasonably exhaustive research, but I can see I need to dig deeper and wider, and definitely starting writing research reports (for my own benefit, and others.) I have a lot of what I call Doppelgangers--same name folks during a given timeframe. I do excel sheets to map out their lives to come to same determinations. But I have never tried to gather an entire unit's records. Thanks everyone for this webinar, esp., thank you Ms. Mills.
It can be frustrating. In my ancestors there are many people who have the same names over generations. So I always have to look at the birth dates of them. My grandfather and his cousin had the same name, Wasyl Kulij, and they were about the same age, and came to Canada about the same time. Grandfather stayed in Canada, and his cousin moved to the USA. I found a passenger list to Canada with Wasyl Kulij, but that was not my grandfather as the birth date was not his, but his cousin's.
My G5, Samuel Hall, 1787-1856 served with Samuel Witter - I had no idea until I watched this webinar. Just last week I was researching his military unit but now I found so much more on Historic Pathways. Thank you ESM- you are truly the best, I have learned so much from you!
It is always a pleasure and educational to listen to Elizabeth Shown Mill's webinars. The Q&A are invaluable.
What exhaustive research she does!!! It's exhausting to listen to
I really appreciate the processes ESM describes. They give us a new way to think through a puzzle. Much appreciated.!
The opportunity to learn from ESM is wonderful and the series is amazing. I have learned so much and look forward to the next 6 presentations.
The lecture is a reminder to be more careful when researching our ancestor' s with same last names. As it could lead down the wrong path!