gaigai

I had to split my screen, so I can address this, LOL. OK, here are my (never to be humble, but not definitive) thoughts about Jack/Joseph.

You should have birth records (county, whatever) showing Joseph P. (Joe) Barber is the son of James & Mary Jane. You should also have marriage and divorce records for Joe and Maxie and marriage records for Joe and Emily. BUT you must also have some actual documentation or link of some kind that shows that the Joe that is married to Maxie and Emily is the SAME Joe Barber who is the son of James and Mary Jane. Joseph Barber is not an uncommon name, and I would suspect that there are several (yes, even with the same birth date) in California. You should also have records of the families, including siblings of James (Mary Jane). It was common for names to repeat.

In my Bevington line, there were Thomas, Henry and James. Each one had sons named Thomas, Henry and James, and each of their sons did too, so when it comes to separating who belonged to whom, it can get hairy!! My gr-grandfather Michael Dobmeyer had a cousin, Michael Dobmeyer, with the same birthdate. Same small county in Ohio. What do you have that links the Joseph Barber who was married to Emily with James & Mary Jane and Joseph and Maxie? Because I promise you, name and birth date is NOT enough. Do you have any kind of will, or land records that name children, wife's maiden name, parents, etc.? And have you tried to find a birth record for Jack Barber in Canada? Canadian records can be excellent!! Remember in French Canada, Jack=John=Jean. You should also get copies of the complete military hospital record and search it for ties. There may be something in the record that points you in the right direction. Until and unless you have something that links Joe and Jack, I have to agree with your sister, that there is a good possibility they are not the same at all.

For example, I struggled for more than 10 years looking for the parents of my gr-gr-grandfather Edward LaMarche. I knew he was born in Quebec, and came to the US. Family stories said his family was wealthy, and that he was disowned when he decided to stay in the US, and that his name was "DE Lamarche". The problem is that the surname Lamarche is as common as Jones in Quebec, and further complicated by the fact that in Canada, Lamarche is not an original name. It is what is called a "dit" name, or alias/aka. There were about 12 different surnames it could revert to. Plus Canadian records link through marriage records. But my Edward married in the US. I did find a Lamarche researcher who had every single available record of Lamarche marriages in Quebec, but that didn't help me. I needed to know Edward's parents names. I had a copy of the Naturalization Index information, which listed him as Edward Sr. (I am descended from his son Edward) with wife and children. All the information from the actual document was listed on the index page, so I never took the time or trouble to get the original document, which had not been microfilmed. Well, after about 10 years, just to complete what documentation that was available to me, I sent away for a copy of the original naturalization record, just to have it. After all, it wasn't going to give me any new information, but it would help complete my records/documentation for that person. The genealogist who copied the record for me, included a little note that said "BTW, I noticed that while the index lists Edward as Sr., the actual document shows him as Edward Jr. Obviously the person who compiled the index misread Jr. as Sr., since he had a son by the same name". And EUREKA!!!! There it was!!!! What was really funny, was what I had just researched, literally the same week. I had found a photo of "Grandpa Edward's brother, in Montreal, who was a doctor". From the photo and date it was taken, I could guestimate an approximate age for him. I then contacted my Lamarche expert and asked him to name all Lamarche MD's. He gave me three names. I then traced each of those persons ancestry back at least two generations and compared dates. Only one was the right time-period. His father's name was Edouard!!! When I went looking for the birth record for MY Edward, I found him. He was baptized "Joseph Marie Edouard Dufaux dit Lamarche". Knowing this information, I have found more links.

So, it can get incredibly complicated, but I LOVE IT!!! Good luck!