It is next to impossible to do any significant online genealogy research

[Brother Buzz]

on a family name, "Record".

That is all.

[radical noodle]

1. I went to school (many years ago)

with a couple of guys who had the last name of Record. I hadn't given the genealogy aspect a thought. That's worse than the John Lawrence name I struggle with.

[GeoWilliam750]

2. And I thought I had it bad with my common names....

[seaglass]

3. One of the names in my family is Nee. Very difficult to find any kind of announcements

in newspapers because of those darn maiden names!

[Brother Buzz]

5. I see you have encountered a similar wall

Separating the wheat from the chaff is a daunting task.

[Thor_MN]

4. One set of my 2nd great grandparents were John and Anna Olsen from Trondheim.

I eventually was able to push on past those very generic names and find their parents and further back. I still don't know when they died, however...

[csziggy]

6. Generic - try Mary Morgan, the daughter of David Morgan in Wales!

I think I finally have her narrowed down to which of the half dozen or so Mary Morgans born in the correct time frame in Cardigan several of whom were daughters of David Morgans, but it's taken a while to get that far.

Some day I hope to travel to the village where she married and where all her children were born. When my sister visited there, she met people who remembered the family - but any records she made were lost after she died.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. It could be worse, at least it's not "Jones"

[No Vested Interest]

9. Patrick Kelly from Ireland. (Kelly is the second most popular/common name in Ireland.)

And Patrick is likely more common than John, as St. Patrick is the patron saint of the isle.

You might say "Kelly" is the "Jones" of Ireland.

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. Anyone at all from Ireland, in my experience

if you have Irish ancestors who came to America because of the famine? You might know where in Ireland they were from, but good luck finding anything beyond that.

[Boomerproud]

8. My gg grandmother was Mary Johnson.

When I saw that on my great-grandfathers death certificate I vowed to give up then and there. Luck and tenacity got me through the brick wall.