Scott -- repeating first names is quite usual for that time. You had a kid... it died... and the next one along (of that sex, of course) got the same firrst name. These were given for a purpose, after all. You were expected to name the children after your respective parents (usually in strictly prescribed succession) and once that was accomplished, you went on to the names of your greatparents [which often were identical with those of your brothers and/or sisters].

Occasionally, both your father and your father-in-law had the same first name (Jan or Johannes, Berend, Klaas, whatever). Then you might name two sons Jan (Jan the elder and Jan the younger). Same thing with his mother/her mother, of course. Which means you cannot be 100% sure that the first Gerardus had died before a second one popped up, but two children of the same name within one family it is fairly unusual and would take some clear proof before I believed it. 

@Scott

I understand there are some guidelines/rules regarding living people, but what if someone from there wanted to contact me?  I'm not sure if very extended family members would want to connect.

Since May 2018 there is very strict EU-regulation in place regarding the protection of privacy and the processing and storage of personal data. This is called the GDPR regulation if you want to research that (which you probably don't want to 

).

In short it comes down to that it is forbidden to publish personal data (and that is a very wide concept) that can be related to living persons, without their explicit consent to do so for a specific and given use and for a specific and given distribution medium. There are some exceptions to this rule and to a certain level historical genealogical research might fall within those exceptions. But it is still a bit tricky with regard to living persons and jurisprudence still has to be created, so people err on the side of caution. This GDPR regulation explicitly does not concern persons that have died.

If people on this forum want to contact you privately they can do so by clicking on your name and then click on the button



This will establish a private email connection between that person and yourself.

If you want to contact living persons that are not a member of this forum, you could try to locate them via Facebook or other social media.

I think many people are interested in their (distant) relatives and genealogy is a popular (and growing) hobby, but my guess is that it is still a relatively small part of the population that is actively researching their history.

You have already encountered some people here that are somewhat related to you, so you could contact them privately (via the green button) if you want to discuss living relatives with them.

For the historical part of researching your family tree, you can post any question you have and I am certain there are plenty of people who would want to help you out.

I do recommend however that you use some genealogical software that will help you to manage all the data and keep an overview. There is plenty software that is both free and easy to use or can be bought for a relatively small sum.

Cheers

Scott,

My reaction to your post of 1 mei:

I understand that you descend from Mathias van Summeren, born 1930, who emigrated to the U.S. His parents, Joannes van Summeren and Joanna G. van Asten had only one other son, who died after 8 days. From his second marriage to Antonia Eijkhout, Johannes van Summeren had two children, both sons, Gerardus and Theodorus. The third marriage of Joannes to Wilhelmina Vosch remained childless. Therefore, the only two candidates for male offspring, related to you are Gerardus and Theodorus van Summeren. I investigated their families and below I list them, generated by my genealogical programme.

Family group sheet of Gerardus van SUMMEREN

Gerardus van SUMMEREN, born Herpen 28-1-1836, died there 21-1-1900, aged 63 years and 358 days, son of Joannes/Jan/Johannes van SUMMEREN and Antonia EIJKHOUT.
He was married Herpen 19-6-1867, at the age of 31 (1) to
Petronella Alberdina van Dijk (aged 23 years), born Herpen 8-12-1843, died there 7-5-1881, aged 37 years and 150 days, daughter of Jan Willem van Dijk and Joanna Albers.
From this marriage:

1. Johanna Maria van SUMMEREN, born Herpen 14-11-1869, died there 16-5-1936, aged 66 years and 184 days.
   She was married Herpen 22-5-1889, at the age of 19 to Franciscus van Berkel (aged 33 years to 34 years), born Oss 1855/1856, son of Theodorus van Berkel and Geertruida Maria van den Heuvel.
2. Antonia van SUMMEREN, born Herpen 27-5-1871, died Ravenstein 25-4-1959, aged 87 years and 333 days.
   She was married Herpen 3-2-1901, at the age of 29 to Willem van der Ven (aged 23 years to 24 years), born Herpen 1877/1878, son of Jan van der Ven and Henrica van den Berg.
3. Theodorus van SUMMEREN, born Herpen 15-12-1872, died unmarried Ravenstein 12-10-1941, aged 68 years and 301 days.
4. Antonetta Maria van SUMMEREN, born Herpen 31-5-1874, died there 3-6-1891, aged 17 years and 3 days.
5. Wilhelmina Johanna/Johanna Wilhelmina van SUMMEREN, born Herpen 25-12-1876, died there 22-3-1881, aged 4 years and 87 days.
6. Johannes van SUMMEREN, born Herpen 10-11-1878, died there 2-2-1880, aged 1 year and 84 days.
7. Petronella van SUMMEREN, born Herpen 3-8-1880, died there 15-3-1881, aged 224 days.

Gerardus was married Zeeland 30-7-1882, at the age of 46 (2) to
Wilhelmina Willems (aged 32 years), born Zeeleand 25-10-1849, died Herpen 28-8-1886, aged 36 years and 307 days, daughter of Jacobus Willems and Marianna Verstegen.
From this marriage:

1. Child van SUMMEREN, stillborn Herpen 4-5-1885.

Family group sheet of Theodorus van SUMMEREN

Theodorus van SUMMEREN, born Herpen 27-2-1840, day laborer, coachman and farmer, died Cuijk en Sint Agatha 14-2-1927, aged 86 years and 352 days, son of Joannes/Jan/Johannes van SUMMEREN and Antonia EIJKHOUT.
He was married Cuijk en Sint Agatha 11-5-1871, at the age of 31 (1) to
Johanna/Maria JANSSEN (aged 28 years), born Beugen en Rijkevoort 23-2-1843, died Cuijk en Sint Agatha 18-5-1875, aged 32 years and 84 days, daughter of Hendrikus JANSSEN and Maria HENDRIKS.
From this marriage:

1. Johanna Antonia van SUMMEREN, born Cuijk en Sint Agatha 12-7-1873, died there 2-12-1891, aged 18 years and 143 days.

Theodorus was married Cuijk en Sint Agatha 10-4-1877, at the age of 37 (2) to
Helena MEGENS (aged 39 years), born Puiflijk, township Cuijk en Sint Agatha 13-9-1837, died Cuijk en Sint Agatha 18-10-1910, aged 73 years and 35 days, daughter of Hendrik MEGENS and Maria HENDRIKS.
From this marriage:

1. Maria Hendrica van SUMMEREN, born Cuijk en Sint Agatha 9-6-1881, died there 25-6-1881, aged 16 days.
2. Antonius Johannes Hendricus van SUMMEREN, born Cuijk en Sint Agatha 14-7-1883.
   On 30-1-1914 he emigrated to America.

As you see, the only two sons that grew up are Theodorus van Summeren, son of Gerardus and Antonius Johannes Hendricus van Summeren, son of Theodorus. The first one died unmarried and the second one emigrated to America.

Unless I have overlooked something, my conclusion is that in the Netherlands there aro no living descendants of Joannes van Summeren, born in 1799, with the last name Van Summeren.