This just arrived from Genealogy in Time More Great Genealogy Brickwall Solutions - Part I http://tinyurl.com/24fw37a One little quibble among all of the great tips: Junior and Senior were sometimes used to distinguish people of the same name living in a community, even if they were not related. Nicknames often served the same purpose. As the article rightly points out, Senior and Junior did not automatically mean a father and son. In earlier times, you cannot safely assume that the father of Robert Walker junior was Robert Walker senior. Robert Walker junior, was just the younger of the two Robert Walkers in the community His father might well be Henry Walker! This would be totally consistent with the usage of the time, even if it seems strange to us today. The part about translating names brings to mind the Acadian genealogy of a friend. When a LeBlanc family moved to an English-speaking area they would sometimes disappear from the written records and an identical White family would appear. If one of the White families moved back into a French-speaking area they would suddenly become LeBlanc again. People liked to fit into their community. If changing the surname helped, it was often done. Enjoy the excellent article!