The name Brenda Smith appears across genealogy databases, obituary records, acting credits, and beauty pageant profiles. But these are not all the same person. It is a very common name, and conflating different records can lead to real confusion.
This article focuses on one specific Brenda Smith — the individual documented in a publicly available genealogy record at steveredman.com. We will explain her reported family connections, clarify what the record does and does not confirm, and separate her from other well-known women who happen to share the same name.
The Brenda Smith in the Genealogy Record
According to pages 390 and 391 of the Steve Redman genealogy site, one Brenda Smith is listed as the daughter of Roger Howard Smith Sr. and Josephine Loretta Perkins. She is also recorded as married to Ira David Burroughs.
The record lists two children: Theresa Marie Burroughs and Ira L. G. Burroughs. That is essentially everything this source provides. There is no birth date, no location, no occupation, and no personal biography attached to the entry.
The record was last edited in November 2018. It reads as a basic genealogical profile — a name and a set of family relationships — nothing more. Readers looking for a fuller biography will not find one here.
Her Reported Connection to Steven Harn Redman
The primary reason this genealogy entry surfaces in searches is its stated connection to Steven Harn Redman. The record describes Brenda Smith as Redman’s fifth cousin twice removed.
The same entry also identifies her as a sixth great-granddaughter of John Hearn, which is the common ancestral line that links the two individuals in the family tree.
It is important to be clear about the nature of this claim. This is a user-maintained genealogy page. The relationship has not been independently verified through civil records, archival documents, or official sources. Treat it as a reported connection, not a confirmed fact.
That said, the entry does give enough structural detail — parents, spouse, children, and an ancestral line — that someone with access to supporting documents could potentially verify or challenge it.
What “Fifth Cousin Twice Removed” Actually Means
This phrase trips up a lot of readers, so it is worth unpacking briefly.
When two people are called cousins, it means they share a common ancestor. The number — first, second, third — tells you how many generations back that shared ancestor is. A first cousin shares grandparents with you. A fifth cousin shares a much earlier ancestor, several generations up the family tree.
“Twice removed” adds another layer. It means the two people are not at the same generational level. One is two generations above or below the other in the family structure.
Put simply, a fifth cousin twice removed is a very distant relative. Most people would never cross paths with such a person in everyday life, and the connection would not be obvious without a detailed family tree. This label should not be read as indicating a close or meaningful personal relationship.
How Reliable Are Online Family-Tree Records?
This is a fair question, and the honest answer is: it depends, and you should always verify.
Many genealogy pages are built by individual users who submit their own research. Sometimes those submissions are well-documented. Other times, entries are copied from other unverified trees, which means errors in names, dates, or relationships can spread across multiple websites without anyone catching the mistake.
The Steve Redman genealogy entry for Brenda Smith provides parentage, a marriage, and two children. Those are specific, checkable details. To confirm them, a researcher would want to find supporting documents such as:
- Birth certificates
- Marriage records
- Census documents
- Obituaries
- Probate records
If those records match the details in the genealogy entry, the profile becomes more credible. If they contradict it, the entry should be questioned.
The Mesaieux genealogy database shows that multiple historical records exist under the name Brenda Smith — births, marriages, censuses, and obituaries — which makes careful source evaluation even more important. Not every Brenda Smith in a genealogy database is the same individual.
Other Women Named Brenda Smith — Who They Are Not
Because this name is so common, it is easy to accidentally mix up completely different people. Here are three distinct Brenda Smiths who are not the same person as the genealogy subject.
The Señorita Panamá 2021
A separate Brenda Smith was crowned Señorita Panamá 2021 and went on to represent Panama at Miss Universe 2021. According to her Famous Birthdays profile, she was born in Georgia to a Panamanian father and a Mexican mother.
None of those details — her birthplace, her parents’ nationalities, or her pageant career — connect in any way to the genealogy entry listing Roger Howard Smith Sr. and Josephine Loretta Perkins as parents. These are two different women who happen to share a name.
The IMDb Actress
IMDb lists a Brenda Smith born November 18, 1963, with acting credits. The available information about this person is limited, and there is nothing in the existing data to link her to the genealogy subject. Without matching details like parents, spouse, or location, no connection should be assumed.
Obituary and Historical Records
Online searches for “Brenda Smith” also return obituaries and historical records for various women with that name. These should not be assumed to describe the same individual. As noted by the Mesaieux database, records under this name span different time periods, locations, and family lines.
The only reliable way to confirm that two records refer to the same person is to match multiple identifying details — parents, spouse, children, birth date, and location — not just the name.
What the Record Tells Us and What It Does Not
To summarize what is actually documented: one Brenda Smith appears in a genealogy record as the daughter of Roger Howard Smith Sr. and Josephine Loretta Perkins, married to Ira David Burroughs, with two children. The same record claims she is a distant relative of Steven Harn Redman through a shared ancestral line tracing back to John Hearn.
What the record does not tell us is nearly everything else. There is no confirmed birth date, no known location, no career information, and no independent verification of the family relationships listed.
For anyone researching this particular Brenda Smith, the genealogy entry is a starting point, not a finished answer. Civil and archival records would be needed to build on it properly.
If you are interested in reading more profiles and background pieces on public figures and family history topics, Alpha Business Daily covers a wide range of people and stories worth exploring.
Final Thoughts
Brenda Smith is not a unique name, and that is really the central issue here. A genealogy site entry places one specific Brenda Smith within a documented family line, with named parents, a husband, and two children. A claimed distant relationship to Steven Harn Redman is what brings the record into search results.
That relationship — fifth cousin twice removed — is distant by any measure. It reflects a shared ancestor far up the family tree, not a close personal connection.
Whether you are a casual reader or an active genealogy researcher, the key takeaway is simple: do not assume that two records belong to the same person just because the name matches. Verify the details, check the documents, and treat online family-tree entries as leads rather than conclusions.
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