Mary Penner has another helpful article in The Albuquerque Tribune, Why was loving Romeo taboo? about a problem that just about all genealogists encounter at some point in their genealogy research – name changes, name swaps, nicknames, you name it (pun intended, of course). In this case she talks about American Indian names.
Excerpt from the article:
Why was loving Romeo taboo? For Juliet, the problem seemed as simple as a name. She was a Capulet and Romeo was a Montague. Big deal.
“What’s in a name?” she cried from her balcony. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. . .”
Genealogists encounter maddening name problems all of the time. Our ancestors used first and middle names interchangeably, and occasionally people just willy-nilly changed their names. Nicknames were plentiful in the past, too.
The name issue is especially challenging when looking at Indian Census Rolls.