Differentiating between the two John Calvins
Multiple people having the same name can be a challenge to the amateur genealogist. Often the people are not related and it’s imperative to verify information in order to correctly identify the person who is in your ancestry line. Other times there may be multiple people with the same name in your line and it is essential to find the precise data that matches the intended ancestor of your search.
I discussed some of my confusion when searching for the “correct” Stephen in my February 3, 2002 post. In this same post, I shared my discovery of two cousins, one my great grandfather, with the same name – John Calvin Watkins. Both of them have history in West Virginia.
This week’s theme is Maps. I decided to use Google My Maps to help clarify which John Calvin is which.
Both of the John Calvins have roots in Pennsylvania (both of their fathers were born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania) and West Virginia. John Calvin, son of William, was born in Fayette, Pennsylvania then moved to West Virginia and married there, remaining in West Virginia the rest of his life (his map markers are in red). My great grandfather, John Calvin, son of Samuel, was born in West Virginia then moved to Kansas with his mother after his father died. He moved around some, mostly in Kansas and Oklahoma with a stop in Arkansas (his map markers are in purple – if you don’t see the purple marker in West Virginia just scroll out; also click on each marker to see the name of the town).
This a good way to visualize the timeline of an ancestor. I need to get back to using Google Maps, thanks for sharing.
It was fun. I’ll definitely use My Maps again.