ESM's QuickLessons A DearMYRTLE Genealogy Study Group Lesson 11

Hilary Gadsby

QuickLesson 11: Identity Problems & the FAN Principle    
Elizabeth Shown Mills, “QuickLesson 11: Identity Problems & the FAN Principle,” Evidence Explained: Historical Analysis, Citation & Source Usage (https://www.evidenceexplained.com/content/quicklesson-11-identity-problems-fan-principle : accessed 25 May 2016).

The FAN Principle referred to in this lesson is looking at friends, associates and neighbours to help find information pertinent to the person we are researching.

Common names can be a particular problem. I have the surnames SMITH and WARD in my husband's family and ROBERTS in mine.
However some surnames can be a problem in particular localities as many are what we call locational surnames and were adopted from the place where the family lived when surname usage started.

I have recently started a One Name study of the surname ROSLING and I shall use an example from this.
The origins of the family I have been researching appear to be in Lincolnshire, England, as far as the current level of research in the UK has shown. 
(My research is at an early stage and earlier records may uncover different origins as I am aware of this surname elsewhere in Europe and it could have been introduced to Lincolnshire from an early invasion)

The name Peregrine Rosling would not be considered to be a difficult name to research as both first and surname are not common. However if you know the family the first name Peregrine is one that has been used by several generations.

This shows the results of a general search for this name at Find My Past

Peregrine Rosling born in Swinstead, Lincolnshire, England has been particularly problematic to follow.There are 2 persons who show on the census records with the same year and place of birth. 

How do I distinguish who belongs to which family?

I have looked at the other census records 

This Peregrine has a wife Eliza who was born in Morton Lincolnshire and appears to be living in the same house with Ann and Edward Rosling could they be close relations.

This Peregrine has a James Mettam widower living with him and his wife Elizabeth he is described as Father of Peregrine and Elizabeth was born in Swinstead. Was his wife Elizabeth Mettam?

The registers held at Lincolnshire Archives have been scanned and digital images are now available to view on the Find My Past website.

Looking at the Baptisms for the parish of Swinstead this is what I have found 

Parish Baptism Register 1813-1871 Swinstead, Lincolnshire

Page 18 No 143 13 Feb 1825 Peregrine son of Peregrine and Ann Rosling Swinstead Labourer

Page 17 No 136 27 June 1824 Peregrine son of Robert and Sarah Rosling Swinstead Farmer

So the first Peregrine could be the son of Peregrine and Ann Rosling?
What was his wife's maiden name?

It is likely that both marriages were registered in the Bourne registration district as all these birthplaces and residences are in this district.
Fortunately Lincolnshire has had many of the marriages transcribed and the indexes can be downloaded. (This link may not be working but I have a copy I downloaded)

I have extracted those of interest and they can be found here.

So how do I confirm I have the correct Peregrine in each family as I now have 3 of them marrying in Swinstead within 10 years. Can I find the one who married in 1846 in the 1851 census and where his wife was born.

So I have discovered the maiden name for each wife and where the wife was born. Each Peregrine had a father with a different first name so I can now have more confidence that I connect each of them and any descendants to the correct family.

Spouse	Birthplace of Spouse	First name of Father	Christening Date	Name of Spouse Father
Eliza	Morton	Peregrine	13 Feb 1825	Charles Wilson
Elizabeth	Swinstead	Robert	27 June 1824	James Mettam
Elizabeth Jane	Castle Bytham	William	1820?	Robert Glenn

When I have done more work on my one name study I will be able to piece together more about how these families are related. The older Peregrine has not been found in the register of baptisms for Swinstead.

I have started to explore other parish records for this area for information.

Every piece of the puzzle is important to ensure we are looking at the right person in that record. 

I have further work to do so that I can discover more about the family of Ann the wife of Peregrine and mother of the younger Peregrine. Having discovered her maiden name and birthplace I find there are at least 2 possibilities for her baptism. Determining who the possible siblings are and what happened to them may help me discover which baptism and family are most likely to be her. I suspect this will involve a lot more analysis of what the records show and I may need to work with unfamiliar records but understanding the importance of who is in the community will help me pull together the clues.