How many John Smiths [insert your ancestor’s name here!] lived in your ancestor’s county? How do you know which William Jones married your great-great-grandmother? When two or more people share the same name, live in the same place, and appear in records during the same time period, how do you prove they’re different people—or the same person using different names? If you’ve ever asked these questions, and I know you have, you’re facing one of...

Welcome to the first of three blog posts about our upcoming Merging and Separating Identities course—where we tackle one of genealogy’s toughest challenges: distinguishing between same-named individuals—and today we’re starting with the single most essential technique taught in the course that transforms overwhelming chaos into clarity. One Technique That Transforms Chaos into Clarity: Organizing Your Merging and Separating Cases If you’ve ever stared at a mountain of records for multiple same-named individuals and felt completely...