Dave, It's not just Colonial America where the suffixes were used to distinguish between 2 same-named individuals in the same area. I was referring to this in my short comment earlier in this thread. My examples are in England.
Particular families may have set rules for how this works but I don't think there are any universal or country wide rules. When each is encountered, you have to research carefully to find out what it means in this particular circumstance and not assume. Cathy Hotrum family wrote: > > The subject of the use of Sr. and Jr. suffixes is even more confusing > > than already discussed. In Colonial America these suffixes were also > used to distinguish between 2 same-named individuals who lived in the > same area that weren't even related to each other. > > An alternative to that was giving every child of the same parents a > specific middle "initial" to identify to which family they belonged. > This "initial" did not represent a name and should not be followed by > a period/full-stop when written in Legacy [phew, now it's on-topic!] > > Cheers! -- Dave N. Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://support.legacyfamilytree.com Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
