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AF-1238: Same Name Ancestors, Part 3: The Proof Case Method | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Release Date: 02/09/2026

AF-1238: Same Name Ancestors, Part 3: The Proof Case Method | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Ancestral Findings - Genealogy Podcast

Same name ancestors can fool even careful researchers because the records are close enough to look convincing. The county fits. The time period fits. The ages are close. The hints line up. It can feel like you have a match when you really have a blend. This last article is about the step that keeps your work clean long term. You stop collecting only “supporting” records, and you build a proof case. A proof case is a short, organized argument that answers one identity question and shows, with evidence, why one candidate fits and the others do not. If you can build a proof case, you can...

AF-1237: Same Name Ancestors, Part 2: Use Witnesses and Bondsmen | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Ancestral Findings - Genealogy Podcast

Same name problems rarely get solved because you find one perfect record that settles everything. More often, the break comes when you stop staring at your ancestor’s name and start paying attention to the names surrounding it. That’s because a name like John Smith or William Jones can appear dozens of times in the same county. In that situation, the main name in a record is almost useless by itself. The separating clues are usually the witnesses, the bondsmen, the sureties, the neighbors, the appraisers, the administrators, and the other people who keep showing up with one candidate and...

AF-1236: Same Name Ancestors, Part 1: The Time Method | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Ancestral Findings - Genealogy Podcast

Same-name problems are one of the biggest sources of bad trees. You find a record for a name that fits the right county and the right time period, you attach it, and then hints do the rest. A spouse appears. Parents appear. Children appear. In five minutes, a whole family is “built.” Then a year later, you notice something that doesn’t fit. A second household with the same name. A land sale that conflicts with your person’s location. A probate file that names different heirs. Now you’re stuck trying to untangle a knot you didn’t mean to tie. The best way to prevent this is to stop...

AF-1235: I’m Done Being Mad at Genealogy | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Ancestral Findings - Genealogy Podcast

I’m Done Being Mad I didn’t wake up calm. I woke up tired. Tired of being irritated at ink. Tired of being annoyed at paper. Tired of holding grudges against people who have been dead longer than electricity has existed. That’s what this is about. Not traffic. Not politics. Not people on the internet... Podcast Notes: Ancestral Findings Podcast: This Week's Free Genealogy Lookups: Genealogy Giveaway: Genealogy eBooks: Follow Along: Support Ancestral Findings: #Genealogy #AncestralFindings #GenealogyClips

AF-1234: The Power of “I Don’t Know” | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Ancestral Findings - Genealogy Podcast

Every family tree is built as much from absence as it is from presence. Names, dates, places, and relationships draw most of our attention, but they are not the whole structure. What often shapes a tree more than anything else is what is missing. Blank space. Not the kind created by neglect or incomplete work, but the kind that remains even after careful searching. The empty boxes. The unconnected lines. The generations that refuse to attach themselves to anything solid. That blank space is genealogy’s most honest element... Podcast Notes: Ancestral Findings Podcast: This Week's Free...

AF-1233: Divorce Records and What They Reveal About Your Ancestors | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Ancestral Findings - Genealogy Podcast

Divorce Records Are a Genealogy Goldmine Divorce records are one of the most overlooked sources in family history research. Many people assume their ancestors never divorced, or they assume that if a divorce happened, it would be obvious and easy to locate. In reality, divorce existed far earlier than most researchers expect, and the records connected to it often contain more personal detail than marriage records ever did. These records document conflict, separation, property, children, and movement in ways few other sources can. Divorce research matters because it explains gaps. It explains...

AF-1232: Before Safety Nets, There Was Each Other | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Ancestral Findings - Genealogy Podcast

Before welfare offices and Social Security checks, there was something older and far more personal. There was each other. When I look at my own ancestors, this shows up clearly. They lived on farms where the nearest neighbor might be a mile away. Today, that sounds distant. In their world, it was close enough to matter. That mile represented connection, not isolation. It meant someone could walk over if they had to. It meant help was available, even if it took effort to reach it. Those neighbors mattered because life demanded cooperation. Weather did not wait. Crops did not pause. Illness did...

AF-1231: When to Call It Quits | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Ancestral Findings - Genealogy Podcast

There comes a point in genealogy when you sit back, stare at the screen, and realize you are not moving forward anymore. You are still working, still searching, still opening records, but nothing new is coming in. You have been here before. Most people who research family history long enough eventually find themselves in this same spot. It usually happens quietly. You open a database you have already searched dozens of times. You adjust a date by a year or two. You change the spelling of a surname that you already know has been searched every reasonable way. You click through the results with...

AF-1230: The Temptation to Assume in Genealogy | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Ancestral Findings - Genealogy Podcast

There is a moment in almost every genealogy project when temptation shows up. It does not usually sound reckless. It sounds reasonable. It sounds efficient. It often arrives as one simple sentence, “This must be the same person.” That sentence has damaged more family trees than missing records ever could, because it pushes the story forward without proof, and it does it in a way that feels productive. Assumptions feel helpful because they fill the quiet places. When the paper trail goes thin, your mind wants to keep moving. You want to connect the last solid record to the next solid...

AF-1229: When the Records Begin Speaking Again | Ancestral Findings Podcast

Ancestral Findings - Genealogy Podcast

Coming Back to the Paper Trail Last time, we stood inside a gap, ten years of a man’s life with no clear paper trail. No neat answers. No satisfying explanation. Just silence, the kind that shows up in family history more often than most people expect. Today, we return to the records, not to force a conclusion, but to listen again. Because sometimes the past does not speak louder. It simply speaks later, and when it does, it changes the work you need to do. When Samuel Carter reappears in the 1860 census, the shift is immediate. He is no longer a young laborer living in someone else’s...

More Episodes

This last article is about the step that keeps your work clean long term. You stop collecting only “supporting” records, and you build a proof case. A proof case is a short, organized argument that answers one identity question and shows, with evidence, why one candidate fits and the others do not.

If you can build a proof case, you can defend your conclusion later, and you can hand the work to someone else without it falling apart...

Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/same-name-ancestors-proof-case-method/

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