Merging or separating identities is a core genealogical problem. Sometimes we find a person of the same name in several different places over time. Other times, we find two easily confounded people in the same place and time. A series of short case studies illustrates the importance of certain identity.
Jay Fonkert, CG, is a Minnesota-based genealogy researcher, educator, and writer who focuses on nineteenth-century Midwest research. His favorite research target is the Fawkner family of Kentucky and Indiana. He is a trustee of the BCG Education Fund, a past director of the Association of Professional Genealogists, and a past president of the Minnesota Genealogical Society. Jay was an instructor at the Salt Lake Institute for Genealogy from 2013 to 2015 and has published more than sixty research and teaching articles in the Minnesota Genealogist, The Septs, Family Chronicle, NGS Magazine and the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.
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