Based on a mention on the Evidence Explained blog, I decided to purchase a copy of E. A. Wrigley's Identifying People in the Past.
I'm hoping it's not too academic, but I'm also hoping that it at least gets me thinking about some of the issues that people face when researching historical figures (which our dead ancestors are, after all) and working to be as certain as we can be that two people we think are the same man or woman actually are.
Genealogy software programs may have an automatic merge, but researchers know that's it is never quite that simple.
I'm looking forward to receiving my copy of Identifying People in the Past. We'll be writing about it after the first of the year when it arrives.
Stay tuned.