Hello: I have never heard of this, but did a google search and found another reseacher who claimed the same thing: ie that the Jr and Sr designations could be used by local officials to differentiate two unrelated men in the same locality. The posting was done in 2003, so I doubt the email address would be current to try to find out where the researcher got their information, but at least there is another occurence of the story. Also, I found interesting info about how to decide whether to call someone John Smith JR or John Smith II (use Jr only if dealing with a father and son with the same name, and use II if it is the second person in the family with the same name, but not a father and son - perhaps a boy named after his great grandfather) and about John Smith Jr becoming John Smith Sr after the birth of his son and the death of his father. A confusing tradition!!!

Best wishes

Norm Dawson
CAlgary AB