I know what you mean about the possibility of two people with such an uncommon name as contemporaries. For years I published the "Beckwtih Newsletter". There was criminal witht he name Oscar FitzAllen Beckwith in NY born about 1810. I was trying to trace his parentage. but I kept coming across two different sets of parents. Turns out two men were the culprits! One was born 1808 and one 1810. One lived in VT and one in NY. They were most likely distant cousins. But two at the same time with the same name!? I later found out that a poular novel at the turn of the century (c1800) had a character named Oscar FitzAllen. Apparently both mothers and/or fathers had read the book and liked that character!

One never knows the what fors or whys without exhaustive research. Unfortunately, with readily available internet access, few people take the time to do any "real" research and assume what is on-line is "gospel". I appreciate your comments on this discussion board, and those of others (especially Bryan Howerton) on this board and others (AL, IT, etc.). Perhaps your comments with backing source material will spur others to conduct actual research instead of just internet searches.

Sorry to be so long winded!

Mahlon Erickson