On thing about the duplication of names in our family tree, they sometimes tell you a lot.
For example, there was a John Vance and his wife listed in the 1861 Oxford County, ON, census and their oldest two children were Joseph and Sarah. That’s pretty strong evidence that he was our great-grandpa’s oldest (step) brother, the one born in Scotland in 1830. (I don’t find this family in later census records, though; they must have moved away.)
Great Grandpa’s brother Joseph didn’t move very far in his lifetime. In 1861 he was 20 years old, still at home with his parents.
On November 16, 1865 he was married to Margaret McPherson from Grey Township. It appears they resided in Blandford Township, Oxford County all their married years.
From the 1881 Oxford County, ON census:
Joseph………………….37
Margaret………………36
Catherine……………..14
Joseph………………….13
Sarah……………………11
Mary……………………. 9
John…………………….. 6
Margaret……………… 4
William………………… 1
From the 1891 Ontario census:
Joseph………………….49 (Birth Year about 1842)
Margaret………………47
Catherine……………..24
Joseph………………….23
Sarah……………………21
Mary……………………18
John…………………….16 (He was away from home right then.)
Maggie…………………14
William…………………11
Barbara………………… 9
Samuel…………………. 7
Duncan………………… 4
From the 1901 Ontario census:
Joseph……………………57
Margaret………………..56
Sarah……………………..30
Barbara………………….19
Samuel…………………..17
Duncan…………………..14
Being the oldest of the family, he may well have inherited the family farm.
Vance Turner Connect 
I found it interesting that they named a child Maggie, probably after the mother, who was Margaret. I think of Maggie as a short form of Margaret. This family had Margaret the mother, and girls Maggie and Mary (plus 3 others with more distinctive names). It would have been a confusing household with such similar names.
Yes, they were named after parents, grandparents, uncles & aunts–and this goes on and on. I’m sure our great-grandfather Samuel was named after his grandfather Samuel Allen. I hope to post a bit about the families of great-grandpa’s brothers David and Robert tomorrow and you’ll see what I mean.
Can you imagine the extended family gatherings? “Okay everyone. It’s Robert’s Robert’s David’s turn to haul away the trash and Joseph’s George’s Sarah’s and George’s Joseph’s Sarah’s turn to clear off the table. All the Margarets can wash dishes.” 🙂
Perhaps all this doesn’t interest some of our readers, but the Vance Family Association has put our blog on their list of links, so I like to add a bit of info for those who are into genealogy. I hope you can bear with me.
I’d love to know where all these descendants are today in case I might meet one on the street sometime. We visited my penpal in Ohio one day and this couple had invited their friends. The husband mentioned that his grandmother had been a Goodnough, so he and Bob traced their family trees back to about tenth cousin. You gotta love genealogy to do that. 🙂