How Many Names Can One Person Have?

August 1, 2026.Reading time 6 minutes.

One of the first things genealogists learn is this: Never assume you’ve found every record just because you’ve searched one name—or that the record doesn’t exist because you couldn’t find it under one spelling. People change their names.Women marry.Immigrants Americanize surnames.Census takers spell names the way they hear them.Newspaper reporters make mistakes.Clerks misread handwriting. If […]

From Ancestry Message Board to Arson Files: Uncovering Catherine Seeley’s True Motive

November 10, 2025.Reading time 10 minutes.

NOTE: This post has also been cross-posted to my author blog: https://deborahsholman.com/ I didn’t set out to write about a con artist. I wasn’t even researching criminals. I was trying to get the facts straight about my husband’s great-grandmother, known in the family as Catherine C. Fitzallen. I was scrolling through an Ancestry message board, […]