Last week I was researching an Irish family. From the 1911 census, I knew that Michael was married to Mary, was born in County Westmeath in about 1850, was married before 1892 (oldest living child was born 1892), and I knew the names of their living children. My plan was to go after the couple’s marriage record, which I knew would give me Michael’s father’s name. However, I decided to first do a few searches in the Irish Roots database to see if I could find Michael’s baptismal record. For the place and time period, only a few possibilities showed up with the correct surname and birth date. There was an entry for Michael, born in 1851, son of Laurence and Elizabeth. I quickly noticed that not only was this the right place and time period, but the father’s name was Laurence–the same name that Michael gave to his firstborn son. I later did a 1901 census search, and found the family again. This time it noted two other daughters who must have passed away by the 1911 census enumeration. You can probably guess what I found…the oldest daughter’s name was Elizabeth!

So, although I still need to find the marriage record and verify that Michael’s father’s name was in fact Laurence, I am practically certain that this is the correct baptismal record and that Michael named his first daughter after his mother and his first son after his father. I was reminded that being aware of family naming patterns (although not dispositive) is a pretty great research strategy to identify parents and other family members.