What's in a Name?

In a way I've touched on how researchers need to be careful about name spellings already. Reilly is not the only name that has a number of interesting variations-- there's McDonald/MacDonald, McCordel/McCorkel/McCortel and of course Moore/Moor. I'm sure there are others as well!

At the guided tour I gave on July 14, 2012, a small mystery was cleared up. Nesbit with one and two ts appears in various records. Apparently both spellings were common at one time. A Nesbitt family member told me that his family name had been spelled with one t until a male Nesbit married a female Nesbitt and she insisted on the two ts becoming the family spelling. Cool huh?

When reading old records you really have to keep your wits about you because some discoveries are entirely serendipitous (not looked for and all of a sudden there it is). It's pretty common for family names to be carried on from generation to generation, for example there are two Samuels Chilcott in the records. There were two Mrs Samuel Chilcott, both named Ellen. This came to light with the records from 1897 in which Ellen, wife of Samuel Chilcott, died at age 78 as did the infant son of Samuel and Ellen Chilcott. What is the likelihood of a 78 year old woman giving birth in 1897? To firm this up, the burial record for the aged Ellen Chilcott was witnessed by Ellen Chilcott. I suspect the younger was the daughter in law of the elder, but I don't know that for certain. I am sure a Chilcott family geneaologist would know.

A Mrs Samuel Gibson, nee Ellen Dacon, died at age 79 in 1885. Another Mrs Samuel Gibson, nee Mary Stevenson, died in 1892 at age 75.  A Samuel Gibson died at 48 in 1883, making it unlikely he was married to either lady. Another Samuel Gibson died in 1892 at age 86, but was he married to Ellen or Mary or both sequentially?

I have a few Alexanders... On a headstone at Reilly Cemetery (I have no matching records) the deaths of Alexander Usher, age 74, and his wife Elizabeth Courtney (age 73) are recorded as having taken place in 1877. The burial of an Alex E. _____ (illegible record) (1883?) with no next of kin given was witnessed by Alexander Usher. Another record in 1886 has an Alex Usher as signatory. In 1888 Maria O'Hara, wife of Alexander Usher died at age 48. Was the first Alexander father to the second or third Alexander Usher? Assuming Alex E. ____ was an Usher, I believe Alex E. ____ was the child of Alexander Usher (third in the list and signatory to the second's burial). Makes sense but is it so?
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Of course the best way to find all this out would be to transcribe all the records, unfortunately time did not allow for this in my practicum. Wouldn't it be great if they all got done so little mysteries like these could be sorted out definitively?!

Edit-- did I mention that TWO Eliza McGees married Reilly men?