Detective Work

 I have been working my way through a book on the Lichtenwalner Family.  For the most part the book has been accurate minus spelling errors and little things here and there.  

Then I found five children who were actually grandchildren.  That put me in a loop until I worked on the family outside of the genealogy program.  Once that was fixed I started humming along again.  I like being able to stop and put a spouse's parents in the database because this family is so interconnected with other branches of our family.

Then I found a William with three children.  The girls were listed as Mrs. Husband's Name.  I stopped to figure out their names and I spent all day on them.  Why did it take so long?  Because they don't belong to the family listed.  Their father's first name and middle initial are the same.  The surname is different.  The birth/death dates are close.  It took me a long time to realize I was looking at two different possible fathers.  

The last problem I spent a full day on was a man I had in the database three times.  His name showed up five times because one man named his son after himself and then the grandson carried the name.  Now that I've cleared the mess up, I have three men with that name.  Three generations.  Solving the problem required realizing the father was married twice.  That's not unusual.  The first wife's name was misspelled badly enough the genealogy program didn't throw her name up as a possible duplicate. Slough is actually Schlaugh.  In this case anyway.  There were just enough misspellings to send me different directions.  Finally I had the proof I needed in some obituaries naming first husband/second husband and half-brothers by name.  

This is probably clear as mud and when I reread it someday that is what I'll think too.  I am happy I figured out the problems and feel comfortable my database is right  Yes, I sourced my information and included copies of the obituaries and any other documents I could find to support my inferences.