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Thread: Destroying family lore

  1. #1
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    Destroying family lore

    With recent advances in geneolical research and dna analysis, some of our best family stories have been debunked. Here are some examples.

    Myth: my wife is descended from Bob Womack, the fellow that discovered the Cripple Creek gold and subsequently lost the claim in a poker game.
    Fact: Wrong Womack

    Myth: My family tree goes back to Francis Hacker, a close aid to Oliver Cromwell and the guy who signed the death warrant for Charles I.
    Fact: The story is true but, again, no family connection.

    Myth: my wife’s great great grandfather murdered his wife with strychnine. She was bed-ridden and knew she was being poisoned. There is a spoon with her teeth marks.
    Fact: She took the strychnine herself in a suicide. Her husband was kind of a rat but not a murderer.

    Myth: My mother in law was born in Oklahoma and claimed have some Cherokee blood, enough for some ancestor to be eligible for some sort of land grant. The ancestor declined, not wanting to admit to Indian blood. That land is some of the best oil producing land….
    Fact: My wife did 23 And Me and it found no Indian ancestry. It is interesting that our story is exactly the same one that Elizabeth Warren was told. I’ve read that half of Oklahoma claims Native American ancestry.

    Maybe Myth: my great*5 grandfather was a guest of Benedict Arnold when the general found out that his British contact had been captured. Arnold excused himself and went on the lamb.
    Truth: William Burnet is my ancestor. He was stationed at West Point where Arnold was in command. Being an officer (surgeon), he socialized regularly with Arnold. The problem is that every account of that morning traces back to Burnets son so it’s a single source.

    crap! I really liked all those stories.

  2. #2
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    It seems that almost all history has been modified by the person telling/writing it. The mark of a good historian is to be able to make it up on the fly. I found the same sort of thing in my ancestry.

  3. #3
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    Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.


    But I think its a good idea to write down that family history so you can pass on good information to future generations.
    < insert spurious quote here >

  4. #4
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    A very proud Irish friend had his genetic ancestry analyzed. Turns out he is not Irish at all but he does have some Native American genetics. He has channeled his enthusiasm into his American side.
    Best Regards, Maurice

  5. #5
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    My grandmother thought she was related to President Harrison. 10 minutes on the internet showed no connection. However one 19th century relative is more and more interesting the more we learn about him. A few years ago we were able to locate and visit his grave to say hello.

    Jim

  6. #6
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    My brothers and I grew up in the “free love” 60’s and 70’s and 80’s. DNA testing revealed a few nieces and nephews I did not know I had.
    Comments made here are my own and, according to my children, do not reflect the opinions of any other person... anywhere, anytime.

  7. #7
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    Two of these in my own Ancestry investigations.

    MYTH: Mother related to a signer of the Declaration of Independence
    Truth: Correct name, correct time frame; but wrong individual

    MYTH: At least one native American relative.
    Truth: No DNA evidence of this

    That said, actual interesting DNA connections including to Catherine of Aragon and her daughter who eventually became Queen Mary, via her father, a kind of Spain. Also my mother and father are "technically" related, but only back at the time of the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.

    Other interesting things include unknown relatives because of common human behavior, such as infidelity as well as folks in the tree that technically are not blood relatives because of undocumented adoption, etc.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  8. #8
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    In researching William Burnet, I discovered that this was truly the land of opportunity. One son, Jacob, helped found the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. Another son was the first president (appointed) of the republic of Texas. It seemed that if you had more than two brain cells to rub together, you got tapped for the big jobs.

  9. #9
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    If you have a Gateway Ancestor, as Jim must have going back to Catherine of Aragon by way of Mary, Wife of Henry VIII (I believe her only surviving child that had offspring) the branches become endless. I have such an Ancestor, and traced by Y chromosome (top line on a family tree) line all the way back through the Romans. No Henry past the Fifth though, so I guess there is some possibility Jim and I are not related. I am a descendant of Anne Boleyn's Mother, though, so not too far removed.

    I put 6300 ancestors on my tree until I finally got tired of it, and figured out it was endless. I get emails every so often from someone asking questions about Ancestors we share.

    I expect sometime in the not too distant future you will be able to type in a couple of generations, and it all will show up. That won't do Ancestry outfits good in monthly subscriptions though.

    Along the way, I also found out a lot of the told history of our family was incorrect, even if it had been written down in a Bible sometime. I always remember Churchill said that history would be kind to him because he was going to write it.

    https://historyofyesterday.com/we-al...e-f7eeff988b52
    Last edited by Tom M King; 07-25-2022 at 12:05 PM.

  10. #10
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    23andme says I'm related to Jesse James.

    That explains a lot of things.

  11. #11
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    We just say this guy had the same last name. No relation but still nice work. He is also no relation to the founder of the red cross, nor the Yacht maker. I bought my wife some "Dufour" tennis shoes at grocery outlet but they were too small so they went to my niece.
    Bill Dufour

    https://www.scenicwallpaper.com/pres...ndens-virginia

  12. #12
    Many years ago, like 40 or so-?, There was some documentary I was watching, don't remember exactly what it was about but I distinctly remember at the end, the host declared that no matter how far we go back, none of us are 'farther apart' than 22nd cousins...

    Doing a little googling some guy claims that he and most Icelanders are "something like" the 28th cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, and that anyone who can document ancestry back to the prophet Mohamed may be 40th cousins to the queen...

    ? I have no idea

    As for my lineage, I did some checking a few years ago, only got as far back as around the great-great-great grandparents times-- weirdest thing I found was that there must've been some boring times in those days, because the common theme I found was HUGE families- like 10 to 14 kids was about average! (My dad was one of 9, mom one of 5, [I'm one of 5] and it just went up from there!) Haven't done much research since...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  13. #13
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    My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Hughes, and she alway claimed to be related to Howard Hughes, but she had no direct proof - only claims by others in her family of the same thing. We never researched the geneology to see if we could prove/disprove her claim.

  14. #14
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    My uncle spent a lot of time researching our ancestry. Rather interesting as far as our history here. Settled in Sussex county New Jersey in the 1600's and had a good sized acreage. 600+ Later moved to Romney, West Virginia on the West bank of the Potomac. The homestead was still part of the family until the 1950's. There is a reunion in the area every other year but I don't know anyone who has attended. As for whether there are any significant connections in the lineage I have no idea.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    As for my lineage, I did some checking a few years ago, only got as far back as around the great-great-great grandparents times-- weirdest thing I found was that there must've been some boring times in those days, because the common theme I found was HUGE families- like 10 to 14 kids was about average! (My dad was one of 9, mom one of 5, [I'm one of 5] and it just went up from there!) Haven't done much research since...
    True dat. Back only about two generations in my tree the typical family size really was pretty amazing as you note. But even my parents' came from families that were larger than is often typical today with 5 and 6 kids respectively with my dad and my mom. Going back several more generations, it appears that it wasn't unusual for there to be multiple female spouses because of so many women dying in childbirth and each one was cranking out the kids during their life tenure. This was particularly true with quite a few of the Germanic DNA relatives in my tree.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

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