Sometimes, when there are two men of the same name, it takes a bit of digging and luck to separate them out. In other cases, they are clearly two different men but those family historians who don’t do any original research still manage to mix them up.

That’s the case with William Yates, part of the family of Isaac and Nancy (Bandy) Yates, which was the subject of yesterday’s family sketch.

Let’s begin with the wrong William Yates, meaning that this man was NOT the son of Isaac and Nancy (Bandy) Yates.

The WRONG William Yates was born c1836 and was the son of John and Elizabeth (Blue) Yates of Pickaway County, Ohio.

This William Yates married Margaret Kirkpatrick on 20 December 1860 in Fayette County, Ohio. They lived in Rockville, Kankakee, Illinois in 1870 and Deer Creek, Pickaway, Ohio in 1880.

Children in the home in 1880 were:

1. Mary, born c1865, Missouri
2. Minnie E., born c1869, Illinois
3. Cary B., born c1872, Ohio
4. Lura Vista, born c1874, Ohio
5. Matilda, born c1877, Ohio
6. Fred W., born July 1880, Ohio (in 1900 census)

This William Yates died by 1888, as Margaret married (2) Albert G. Stone, c1888 per the 1900 census and the newly blended family was living in Fayette County, Ohio in 1900.

Notice Child #1 – Mary, born 1865 and Child #4, Lura Vista (definitely a rare combination of given names), born 1874. For some inexplicable reason, they have been added to the online tree for “my” William Yates, the son of Isaac and Nancy (Bandy) Yates. Actually, I can figure out why they were added – it is for the simple reason that my William Yates also married a Margaret, but she was Margaret Oney. Mary’s correct birth year is included with her name added to the wrong parents and whoever added her didn’t mind that she was born 5 years before my William and Margaret married, nor that William would have been about 15 years old when Mary was born. So much for analyzing details!

I think I’ve proved that Mary and Lura Vista belong to William Yates who married Margaret Kirkpatrick, so let’s move on to the “correct” William, whose family had a difficult life.

“My” William Yates was born in March 1849, likely in Symmes Township, Lawrence, Ohio, the third child and second son born to Isaac Yates and Nancy Bandy.

William married Margaret Oney, 1 January 1870, Gallia County, Ohio. Margaret was born c1848, Gallia County, Ohio, the daughter of Richard and Mary Oney.

The 1870 census is the only census in which both William and Margaret appear. At the time, William was working in the coal mines and Margaret was keeping house.

William and Margaret had three, and probably four, children born to them in the 1870s.

On 3 September 1870, in Gallia County, Ohio, William and Margaret welcomed twin boys, Alfred Milton and Albert Delton, both of whom survived and lived to adulthood.

Soon after the birth of the twins, the family moved northwest to Green County, Ohio, where the birth of their son, Samuel Robert Yates, was recorded on 1 August 1872.

They were most likely also the parents of William Edward Yates, born c1876, but for whom no birth record has been found.

Thus we have one William Yates, born c1835, Pickaway County, Ohio who married Margaret Kirkpatrick and were the parents of six children.

The second William Yates was born c1849, Symmes Township. Lawrence, Ohio, married in and moved to Gallia County, Ohio and then on to Greene County and eventually to Montgomery County, Ohio.

Two different men with two very different families and life stories who are now sorted out.

“My” William Yates needs one more post of his own to tell the life stories of his family. They were a very troubled bunch and William has no living descendants today.