52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 35, August 26 – September 1, 2024
All Mixed Up

The Smith surname is one in my family tree may and has caused a lot of mix up in my family tree. I have many Smith ancestors, and some descendants have also used the name of Smith as a given or as a middle name to the present day! I thought I’d take you on a short journey of how “All Mixed Up” can and has occurred in my family tree. My apologies if some of this Smith lineage is still “all mixed up” but as genealogists we know that our research may be flawed as much as we’d like to say it isn’t.
Did you know that “Smith” is the first most popular family name in the United States with an estimated population of 2,627,141. It ranks in the 100th percentile and there are 823.92 people named SMITH for every 100,000 Americans. The name has, however, remained constant between 2000 and 2010 according to the Decennial U.S. Census data.
Based on 23andMe data people with the last name Smith have recent ancestry location in the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. That fact certainly aligns with my ancestry research.
According to my RootsMagic9 software, I have hundreds of SMITH ancestors, both direct and collateral. It is, to it simply, mind boggling! I have spent many an hour trying to differentiate one SMITH ancestor from another. It does not help that many given names were also quite common such as Elizabeth, Anne, John, or Joseph to name a few.
So, from where does this surname originate? Here’s some information that I have found:
Smith is an occupational surname originating in England and is the most prevalent surname in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, and the 5th most common surname in Ireland. In the United Sates, the surname Smith is particularly prevalent among those of English, Scottish, and Irish descent, but it is also a common surname among African Americans, which may be attributed either to African enslaved people having been given the surname of their masters, or to being an occupational name, as some southern African Americans took this surname to reflect their or their father’s trade.
Often the occupational version of Smith comes from blacksmith, whitesmith (those who worked with iron), or tinsmith (those who worked with tin), and coppersmith (those who worked with copper).
Other cultures and languages derived the Smith surname, also. For instance, the Dutch used Smit, Smits, Smid, or Smidt. The Germans used the names of Schmidt, Schmied, Schmeidel, and Schmeiden, among others.
At the turn of the 20th century the surname was sufficiently prevalent in England to have prompted the statement: “Common to every village in England, north, south, east, and west,” and sufficiently common on the European continent to be “common in most of the countries of Europe.”
There are also variations of the name such as Smithe, Smyth, Smythe, Smithman, and Smithfield, and others.
I have chosen one Smith ancestor to highlight in this blog post, hopefully I have untangled my ancestor from other Smiths so that his information is not “all mixed up!”
Joseph Speck Smith was my paternal 2nd great-grandfather. He was born in in the agricultural village of Duncannon, Perry County, Pennsylvania on 02 November 1839. His parents were an unknown Smith, and Margaret Lewis, b. circa 1801, d. circa 1870. Margaret became especially difficult to follow back through my family tree because women with the maiden name of Smith, or the married name of Smith, tend to slip into the background, and also, not to mention the surname of Lewis was particularly popular in central Pennsylvania. Unfortunately I was not able to find a photo of my 2X paternal grandfather, thankfully I have one of my 2X great-grandmother, Elizabeth, his wife among photos that were passed to me.
John Speck Smith was the youngest of Margaret’s children, all boys. His oldest brother Michael Smith was almost 20 years older than him. It also seems plausible that there were other siblings between some of the boys as there were three children of which the age span was more than two or three years. The women usually bore a child every two years as was commonplace well into the 20th century.
On the 1850 United States Federal Census I found the first documentation of Joseph’s life. He was eleven years old and living in Penn Township, Perry County, Pennsylvania with his mother, Margaret, age 50, brothers Michael, age 30, James, age 22, William B., age 19, Hiram, age 18, and George, age 15. There was no father listed. James’s and William’s occupations were listed as “nailor.” More on the occupation of “nailor” in the following paragraphs.
The 1860 U.S. Federal Census offered me more information about Joseph. He resided in Penn Township, Perry County, and the Post Office for delivery was in Duncannon. At the present time, Duncannon is part of the Harrisburg-Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area and is near the Susquehanna and the Juniata Rivers. The Appalachian Trail

also runs through Duncannon today. In 1848 the railroad steamed into Duncannon and was a major factor in the growth and development of the area. By 1865 the earliest station was built at the corner of Fisher and Main Streets near the Iron Works Complex, another feature of the history of the area.
In 1860 Joseph’s brother Hiram, b. 1834, was listed as head of household at 26 years old, Joseph was 21 years old. Residing with the brothers were their mother, Margaret, age 59, working as a domestic, and a young girl named Margaret Rodgers, age 11, of whom I cannot find other corroborating information. Hiram was a tailor and Joseph worked as a nailor (possibly). A "nailor" was either a person who made iron nails using a mold, or a person who maintained the teeth (nails) on the carding machine used on wool and cotton before weaving. But on quite a few of the documents which listed Joseph’s occupation his occupation was as a tailor, which makes sense as his brother was also a tailor. However, the Iron Works Complex was one of the largest employers in the county and his brothers James and William were also "nailors." So which occupation was it, a tailor or a nailor? In comparing the documents I found both "nailor" and "tailor" recorded as Joseph's occupation. Their home in Duncannon was rented and Joseph was the only resident that had a personal estate listed at $100. He must have earned enough money as a "nailor" or tailor to save that kind of money before the U.S. Civil War living in a small agricultural and railroad town in central Pennsylvania. There seems to be a misread "N" or "T" at the beginning of the word leading to the discrepancy. How "mixed up" could Joseph's life story be?

By 1861 the specter of the U.S. Civil War had reared its head and, in the U.S., Civil War Muster Rolls, 1860-1869, for the 46th Pennsylvania Infantry, Co. D., I found Joseph Smith, age 21, listed in the register as unmarried. He was under the direction of Capt. Beckwith. In another register I read that Joseph was discharged from the 46th Pa Vols. 18 as “wounded” in the “Former Military Service Column.” My 2X great-grandfather Joseph Smith Speck, according to the draft registration stood 5’5” tall, had brown hair and blue eyes, and his complexion was dark. Some of the information about his U.S. Civil War enlistment and service I found on Fold3 website.
Along with those registers I found several others listing the name of Joseph Smith. It became quite confusing. The difficulty of researching the surname SMITH took much of my time to corroborate this discovery. The chances of being “all mixed up” in regard to Joseph was high.
But indeed, Joseph was a U.S. Civil War veteran in service of the Union having enlisted in Harrisburg on 2 September 1861, and he mustered into federal service at Muddy Branch, Maryland, as a private with Co.D, 46th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was reportedly shot in the hand at the Battle of Cedar Mountain in August of 1862 where the 46th Pennsylvania was heavily engaged. When he received the wound, he was admitted to Emory U.S. Hospital in Washington D.C. where surgeons amputated the index finger to the second metacarpal bone and discharged him by surgeon’s certificate on 19 November 1862. He fought in the Battles of First Winchester at Winchester, Virginia, Middletown, Virginia at Middletown, Virginia, and Cedar Mountain at Culpeper County, Virginia. At the Battle of Cedar Mountain, the Union Army saw 314 men killed, 594 men missing and captured, and 1,445 wounded of which Joseph was one.

The war was over in 1865, Joseph returned home to Duncannon, Pennsylvania and presumably some time before 1867 he married Elizabeth Brenneman, my paternal 2nd great-grandmother. By August 1867 he and Elizabeth had a child named William H. Smith and then in July of 1868 my great-grandmother Florence Brenneman Smith was born. Incidentally, I met my great-grandmother Florence when she was 93 years old along with her brother Ralph Joseph Smith when my parents took us to Philadelphia to visit them several times. Florence was born in Duncannon, Pennsylvania in 1868 and six other siblings followed between the years of 1870 to 1884.
Since Joseph’s occupation as a tailor or "nailor" may have become difficult for him due to his wound and subsequent amputation of his index finger, he seemed to have found another occupation. At 30 years old in 1870, he was the Postmaster of Duncannon according to the U.S. Federal Census.
He owned real estate valued at $700 and had personal estate valued at $350. The years moved forward and by 1880 Joseph was a Justice of the Peace with six children between the ages of thirteen and four. On the 1880 U.S. Census taken in June, he was listed in column 20, “Maimed, Crippled, Bedridden, or otherwise disabled” living in the borough of New Bloomfield, Perry County, Pennsylvania, no doubt from his injury during the Civil War, but not enough to make him unemployable.
Unfortunately, the 1890 U. S. Census was lost in a fire, the bane of all genealogists! But by the 1900 census I picked up the trail of Joseph and found him living in Philadelphia at the age of 60 years. He was widowed as his wife, Elizabeth had died in 1895, but six of his seven children, who were still single, and a boarder resided with him at 2305 Clymer Street in the City of Philadelphia, a rented home. My great-grandmother, Florence, was the one offspring who resided elsewhere, having been married sometime before 1900. Joseph was still working; his occupation was that of “watchman” for a U.S. Arsenal, and four of his children were gainfully employed. Clymer Street had many row homes, and it seems Joseph and his family lived in one of them. They were mostly very plain 2-bedroom, one bath, two-story brick row homes. Living conditions must have been cramped!
It seems that Joseph continued to work for the U.S. Arsenal in Philadelphia after retiring as Postmaster and a Justice of the Peace in Perry County for the remaining years of his life where he had worked as a watchman, a gardener, and an inspector. He was a member of Moore Post No. 56, G.A.R.


At 77 years old, on 21 March 1917, Joseph died of myocarditis in Philadelphia where he had lived with several members of his family since leaving Duncannon many years before.

Joseph was laid to rest in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia next to his wife Elizabeth Brenneman Smith and his son, Charles F. Smith. Interestingly, I discovered where the Smiths were buried from a volunteer of the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery. The cemetery, incorporated in 1855, had been abandoned at some time in its long history but in 2011 the organization began working to restore the property. The kind volunteer who worked at physically restoring the property and in searching online for descendants of the newly recovered graves contacted me through Ancestry.com with information about Joseph, Elizabeth, and Charles.



Here are a few tips on how to distinguish an ancestor with a common surname from unrelated people who have the same name, similar ages and live near each other.
If you come across others with similar names and/or facts that could pose any confusion in your searches, then it’s time to get organized. You’ll want to take the time to create a note with key details about the person you are researching and place it where you can easily see it during your research. I call this my ancestor fact sheet. Here’s what to include:
Full name, including all middle names, married names and nicknames, as well as major spelling variations
Exact dates and locations of birth, marriage, and death, as well as other major life events as you encounter them
Exact locations lived during every census year and members of the household during that time period
Occupations held, years and locations, be specific
Locations and years when all children were born
Full names and basic dates (birth/death) for spouses, parents, and siblings
Names of witnesses found on other records
Religious details
Anything else that you feel could help you differentiate your ancestor from another person
Sometimes it helps to incorporate a timetable.
Don’t forget to consider all of your data together. A shared name and birth year, for instance, is not proof that a record matches your ancestor (instead of someone else). Be sure that you can match several details from your fact sheet, or that you have other solid evidence to support the addition of a record to your tree.
Good luck with untangling your ancestors from non-ancestors who have common surnames!
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