{"id":22659,"date":"2017-05-30T10:36:46","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T14:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=22659"},"modified":"2017-05-30T10:37:06","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T14:37:06","slug":"a-genealogist-has-fun-with-names-mistaken-identities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/a-genealogist-has-fun-with-names-mistaken-identities.html","title":{"rendered":"A Genealogist Has Fun with Names & Mistaken Identities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak shares some of the newspaper articles she\u2019s found that report on \u201cname doppelgangers.\u201d Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background.<\/em><\/p>\n

When genealogists bark up the wrong tree, it\u2019s always a case of a mistaken identity.<\/p>\n

People often have the same names and even live in the same place. It\u2019s easy to get it wrong, even if you find people with the same names living in different time periods.<\/p>\n

To illustrate the point of how many people share names, I had some fun looking up colleagues and famous characters to see what their \u201cname doppelgangers\u201d were up to.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em><\/strong> The term \u201cdoppelganger\u201d comes from the German word \u201cdoppelg\u00e4nger.\u201d Its two parts break down into two words: double and walker.<\/p>\n

Yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you ever looked up your own name?<\/p>\n

I suspect many of our readers have queried the archives for their monikers. When I did mine, I found a scandalous report. A Mary Harrell of earlier days (not a relative that I know of) testified at a murder trial in which a Sheriff Greenlee was found dead.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Knoxville Journal (Knoxville, Tennessee), 30 May 1890, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Colleagues<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carrying on with this theme, I found my GenealogyBank colleague Tom Kemp in this newspaper clipping. In 1879, a man sharing his name owned a large theater in Leadville, Colorado. Known as the Grand Central, it was advertised to seat 3,000 patrons.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Denver Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado), 7 December 1879, page 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other reports in the archives tell you more about this (probably) unrelated man.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Black Hills Daily Pioneer (Deadwood, South Dakota), 7 September 1878, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also found this 1926 report of a man who shares his name with GB Blog editor Tony Pettinato.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 24 April 1926, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sorry, but I found another Tony Pettinato, nicknamed Little Tony, who made an ominous quote when indicted on a murder charge.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
State (Columbia, South Carolina), 27 February 1937, page 12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Where do we go from here? Let\u2019s look up names of some famous people.<\/p>\n

Comedians, Singers, and Actors <\/strong>& Actresses<\/strong><\/p>\n

Looking up the name Rosie O\u2019Donnell didn\u2019t come up with anything exciting \u2013 but there was a Rosie O\u2019Donnell in 1911 who visited her brother in Chicago during the holidays.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Saginaw News (Saginaw, Michigan), 30 December 1911, page 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking up Jimmy Fallon found an interesting story. There was a Navy boxer named Jimmy Fallon who went up against Kid Lewis in 1909. Is it me, or is there a slight resemblance between this boxer and today\u2019s television host? Might have to research his genealogy to see if there is a connection to the pugilist.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
New Orleans Item (New Orleans, Louisiana), 8 May 1909, page 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It turns out Michael Jackson the singer wasn\u2019t the first well-known man by that name.<\/p>\n

Brevetted General Michael Jackson died at Newton in 1801. He was wounded in 1776 during the American Revolution, but was better known for his printing innovations including diecutting and using glass UV on offset machines.<\/p>\n

See: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Michael_Jackson_(American_Revolution)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Columbian Centinel (Boston, Massachusetts), 11 April 1801, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Movie and Sitcom Characters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Funny that a real Tony Soprano was already a thief at the tender age of 11. After snatching $2 worth of fountain pens, he was turned over to Father Flanagan\u2019s Boy\u2019s Home. Would be fun to trace this Soprano through his life to see if his klepto habit ever got corrected.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 5 March 1922, page 9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who would have thought that Queen Elizabeth loved canary yellow enough to be referred to as \u201cLiz Lemon\u201d? Wonder if Tina Fey ever pondered that while playing the queen\u2019s character in the hit show Thirty Rock<\/em>?<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Jersey Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey), 23 January 1954, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Politicians and Presidents<\/strong><\/p>\n

After searching on the name of our former president Jimmy Carter, I found another boxer. I don\u2019t see a shared resemblance in this case, but it was still fun to find.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Heraldo de Mexico (Los Angeles, California), 28 July 1928, page 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You\u2019ll find \u00a0the name Abraham Lincoln in a number of newspaper reports unrelated to the 16th United States president. The famous one married Mary Todd in 1842, whereas another Abraham Lincoln married Mary Upham in 1825.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Columbian Centinel (Boston, Massachusetts), 5 January 1825, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To be fair, Mary Todd had a namesake who married Charles Worthington in 1802 in Baltimore, Maryland.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Federal Gazette (Baltimore, Maryland), 17 September 1802, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now if we could find a marriage of a Mary Upham to a Charles Worthington, that would be something!<\/p>\n

Ever wonder how many George Bushes there have been aside from presidents #41 and #43?<\/p>\n

Turns out you can find quite a few, including the publisher of the Newark Daily Advertiser<\/em>. Good for him. Newspaper publishing is an important component to solving our genealogical puzzles. Next time I hear about a George Bush I will probably also ponder this man.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Newark Daily Advertiser (Newark, New Jersey), 26 May 1832, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Names That Didn\u2019t Make the Cut<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next time you\u2019re stuck on your genealogy or just want a diversion, have fun by searching for famous or illustrious characters in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>. If you need ideas, look for early examples of these names that didn\u2019t make the cut for this blog article:<\/p>\n

Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson of Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/em>), Johnny Carson, Olivia Pope (Scandal\u2019s<\/em> Kerry Washington), and Betty White.<\/p>\n

If you like to read about names, here\u2019s one of my earlier articles you might enjoy: Genealogy Humor: Unusual & Funny Names of People<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak shares some of the newspaper articles she\u2019s found that report on people with the same name \u2013 \u201cname doppelgangers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12235],"tags":[6215,2191,2020],"class_list":["post-22659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-ancestor-name-research","tag-history","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/illustration-0317-2017-featured-graphic-magnifying-glass.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}