What's in a name?

As I continue to clean out my working genealogy folder and enter the information into my family tree, I come to my last six Sponable obituaries. At first glance they seem pretty straight forward, two sons of Nathan Sponable, one son’s wife and their daughter, Nathan’s obituary along with another daughter.

However, nothing is ever straight forward when it comes to genealogy or my family. The first two who I believe are two sons of Nathan are Clarence and Clark.

Clarence’s obituary states Clarence B Sponable, 72 was born in the town of Oppenheim April 17, 1878 the son of Nathan and Mary Ellen Dempster Sponable. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Ida Sponable and one son Elton Sponable.

Morning Herald	Leader Republican

Clark’s obituary states Clark B Sponable, 72 was born in the town of Oppenheim April 17, 1878 the son of Nathan and Mary Ellen Dempster Sponable. He is surved by his wife, Mrs. Ida Sponable and one son Elton Sponable.

Gazette	Leader Republican

So at first glance what I thought was two sons are in fact one son. What I like about these two obituaries is the fact that it clearly documents that Clarence and Clark are in fact the same person, or perhaps Clarence really wasn’t the correct name and the Clark’s obituary is clearing up the fact. I find Clark listed as Clark in all Census records that I can find for him. I haven’t clearly identified him in the 1905 New York State census. Even his World War I and II draft registration cards list him as Clark.

In addition, Clarence’s obituaries, he had two were published in Gloversville, New York newspapers; The Morning Herald and the Leader Republican both on Monday, May 15, 1950 while Clark’s two were both published on Tuesday, May 16, 1950; one in the Leader Republican of Gloversville, New York and the other in the Gazette of Schenectady, New York. So it does appear, that the Clark obituaries are corrections to the Clarence’s obituaries however neither one states the error.

Also, please note that I did not find these obituaries personally, they were posted on Public trees shared via Ancestry.com, therefore there could be more obituaries and/or something that states one is the correction of the other.

This example has taught me a valuable lesson, which one should not stop when finding one obituary or record. I am also glad that I did save these obituaries into my Working Folder to be analysis at a later time. Had I been rushed to add this information into my genealogy database, I might have added two sons, whom at first glanced looked like twins. I might not have realized that they died on the same day and add the same wife and son.