Re. Oral traditions:   I suspect Anne, that your background doesn't include
instruction in research skills  or you would not have asked the question re.
oral history.  ALL research results --oral and otherwise-- start with
evidence. Under the rules of research (history, genealogy/science), people
who make the claims bear the burden of proof. It is their responsibility to
conduct suitable studies and report them in sufficient detail to permit
evaluation and confirmation by others.

Responsible researchers have responsibilities, too. Before we can accept the
authority of a statement,  the evidence must be weighed, e.g.  more "points"
given to a civil document  than to a letter from Aunt Belle's neighbor's
father.  Because there can be errors in civil documents as well as Auntie's
letter,  good researchers in any field (history, science, genealogy) insist
on what Kathleen called "triangulation."  That's the reason researchers
don't quit with one or two pieces of evidence.   By the way, I should
mention that all research assumes a certain level of logic is used.

Sorry, but mine  is an oversimplified example, and I would suggest you find
the article on evidence by Paul Drake.  Contact him on the VA-Roots list. Or
do a google and treat yourself to a short course on research skills.  Most
disciplines require it  as a first step toward acquiring knowledge.

--Tom Gilmore
.....................................

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 3:52 PM, Kathleen Much <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Anne Pemberton wrote:
> some will reject the authority of oral history
> because it is oral history and not written down.
>
> No, some will reject it if it cannot be verified independently. Oral
> history
> should be "triangulated" with other evidence before it is accepted lock,
> stock, and barrel.
>
> In my own family, I have disproved several lovely, romantic tales passed
> down through as many as six generations. My favorite is the one about a
> "French nobleman" who barely escaped the Revolution with his gold melted
> down and made into buttons sewn on his clothes. Unfortunately for the
> storyteller, though, I traced him to his birth in Quebec, in the fourth
> generation of his line to be born there. None of them was noble, none of
> them appears to have escaped from anywhere, none of them was noticeably
> wealthy.
>
> I'm still looking for any evidence that Elizabeth McCraft (my
> 4g-grandmother) was "captured by pirates while walking along a beach on the
> coast of Scotland in the time when Barbary pirates were actively marauding
> there and sold into indentured servitude in Virginia," according to family
> legend. James Acton, "recognizing her merit, purchased her freedom and
> married her." This tale is just barely possible, but I have found not one
> shred of proof, so I'm putting it in the "not verified" file.
>
> Henry Wiencek has properly noted that we know nothing whatsoever about what
> Sally Hemings did or did not tell her children. Even if we did, we would
> need some independent evidence to verify it. We don't have that either. Let
> it rest.
>
> Kathleen Much
> The Book Doctor
>
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