After reading the first half dozen of these posts, you now have seen many familiar Given (first) names like John and Mary used over and over again.  Well, that is because the early settlers of our country more often than not followed the same customs used for naming children in Europe at the time, while also leaning towards Biblical names.

In many families the oldest son and daughter were named directly after the father and  mother.  In other families the eldest boy was ofter named after the father’s father and the oldest girl was typically named after the mother’s mother.  The second boy was then named after the mother’s father, while the second girl was named after the father’s mother.  These customs obviously created a high replication of names across generations.  In early Massachusetts over 50 percent of girls were named Mary, Elizabeth or Sarah.  Some of the popular names for boys were John, Benjamin, Joseph, Jonathan, Nathan and Samuel.

The prevailing use of so many of the same names, along with the general scarcity of records back then, sure make it tough on family historians today. In fact, I bet our ancestors are smiling down on us as they watch us struggle to put the pieces of the family puzzle together.