May 30, 2017
Introduction: In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak shares some of the newspaper articles she’s found that report on “name doppelgangers.” Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background.
When genealogists bark up the wrong tree, it’s always a case of a mistaken identity.
People often have the same names and even live in the same place. It’s easy to get it wrong, even if you find people with the same names living in different time periods.
To illustrate the point of how many people share names, I had some fun looking up colleagues and famous characters to see what their “name doppelgangers” were up to.
Note: The term “doppelganger” comes from the German word “doppelgänger.” Its two parts break down into two words: double and walker.
Yourself
Have you ever looked up your own name?
I suspect many of our readers have queried the archives for their monikers. When I did mine, I found a scandalous report. A Mary Harrell of earlier days (not a relative that I know of) testified at a murder trial in which a Sheriff Greenlee was found dead.
Colleagues
Carrying on with this theme, I found my GenealogyBank colleague Tom Kemp in this newspaper clipping. In 1879, a man sharing his name owned a large theater in Leadville, Colorado. Known as the Grand Central, it was advertised to seat 3,000 patrons.
Other reports in the archives tell you more about this (probably) unrelated man.
I also found this 1926 report of a man who shares his name with GB Blog editor Tony Pettinato.
Sorry, but I found another Tony Pettinato, nicknamed Little Tony, who made an ominous quote when indicted on a murder charge.
Where do we go from here? Let’s look up names of some famous people.
Comedians, Singers, and Actors & Actresses
Looking up the name Rosie O’Donnell didn’t come up with anything exciting – but there was a Rosie O’Donnell in 1911 who visited her brother in Chicago during the holidays.
Looking up Jimmy Fallon found an interesting story. There was a Navy boxer named Jimmy Fallon who went up against Kid Lewis in 1909. Is it me, or is there a slight resemblance between this boxer and today’s television host? Might have to research his genealogy to see if there is a connection to the pugilist.
It turns out Michael Jackson the singer wasn’t the first well-known man by that name.
Brevetted General Michael Jackson died at Newton in 1801. He was wounded in 1776 during the American Revolution, but was better known for his printing innovations including diecutting and using glass UV on offset machines.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson_(American_Revolution)
Movie and Sitcom Characters
Funny that a real Tony Soprano was already a thief at the tender age of 11. After snatching $2 worth of fountain pens, he was turned over to Father Flanagan’s Boy’s Home. Would be fun to trace this Soprano through his life to see if his klepto habit ever got corrected.
Who would have thought that Queen Elizabeth loved canary yellow enough to be referred to as “Liz Lemon”? Wonder if Tina Fey ever pondered that while playing the queen’s character in the hit show Thirty Rock?
Politicians and Presidents
After searching on the name of our former president Jimmy Carter, I found another boxer. I don’t see a shared resemblance in this case, but it was still fun to find.
You’ll find the name Abraham Lincoln in a number of newspaper reports unrelated to the 16th United States president. The famous one married Mary Todd in 1842, whereas another Abraham Lincoln married Mary Upham in 1825.
To be fair, Mary Todd had a namesake who married Charles Worthington in 1802 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Now if we could find a marriage of a Mary Upham to a Charles Worthington, that would be something!
Ever wonder how many George Bushes there have been aside from presidents #41 and #43?
Turns out you can find quite a few, including the publisher of the Newark Daily Advertiser. Good for him. Newspaper publishing is an important component to solving our genealogical puzzles. Next time I hear about a George Bush I will probably also ponder this man.
Names That Didn’t Make the Cut
Next time you’re stuck on your genealogy or just want a diversion, have fun by searching for famous or illustrious characters in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives. If you need ideas, look for early examples of these names that didn’t make the cut for this blog article:
Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson of Grey’s Anatomy), Johnny Carson, Olivia Pope (Scandal’s Kerry Washington), and Betty White.
If you like to read about names, here’s one of my earlier articles you might enjoy: Genealogy Humor: Unusual & Funny Names of People.
