Identifying Ghost's

Ghost stories always tend to name the ghost involved. When I first approach a ghost case, I can't help but think who the ghost might be, even though I don't subscribe to the ghosts are spirits theory or fully accept the stone tape theory. So why do we want to name our ghosts and how do we go about accurately attributing a haunting or individual ghost to an historic person?

Some persons have a strange approach to ghosts.
I remember talking to one of my father's colleagues, who lived a few miles from Birmingham, about his haunting. He wasn't sure if "the ghost" was either a butler or a maid, but he felt sure he/she was during his/her lifetime a servant in his house (which was built during King Charles I's reign) and he would have loved to know his/her name.
Also an historical city or building seems to gain importance if it can boast a famous ghost: what if the Tower of London weren't haunted by Anne Boleyn? What if Rome couldn't boast its many historical ghosts?

In some cases I think they just chose the most famous person associated with the location, which would explain why so many places claim to be haunted by Mary Queen of Scots. If a ghost is said to haunt more than one place at the same time, could it actually be a spirit of a dead person?

In some cases where the ghost is fairly old or well known the witness will just throw the name of the ghost in. In which case they probably got it from prior knowledge of the ghostly events and associated legends.

As investigators I don't think we should blindly accept an identity for a ghost as it could be very wrong.

I have just been looking into the Wem Town Hall photograph. The ghostly girl caught on film amindst the burning building has been linked with Jane Churm who is responsible for accidently setting Wem on fire in 1677. So, we have a young ghost girl in Wem during a fire, is it reasonable to assume it is Jane? I am just thinking that Wem has a long history and has had a decent sized population, so surely there could plenty of other suspects.

If genuine that photograph is one of the scariest images I've seen in my life. I don't know why but it really sends shivers down my spine.
Identifying her may be a bit tricky: perhaps a gifted medium or seer is the right.