Sometime I would love to find a source that somebody put out there which
just held that small kernel of truth which could lead me to find my missing
link. Every time I see strings like this, I wonder whether I really want to
publish my book on one of my families. When you are covering five centuries
of one family in America, you probably have not been able to check every
primary source yourself. I know that my days aren't long enough. I wanted
to write a book which would be a research guide. It would point you in the
right direction so that you could find the primary sources and proofs
yourself.
I believe that I would be so grateful to find somebody who put out some
information - if clearly stating that the information was tradition or
supposition and not proved - which would provide that one little clue which
could lead me to my missing link. Of course, if unproved information was
put out as fact - that would be something else.
-----Original Message-----
From: Research and writing about Virginia genealogy and family history.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Cynthia Claytonroberts
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 9:09 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Last Gasp
Being reminded of all the frustration with "what's out there" this
morning is just what I needed to jump start my day (a dreary one here in
Wisconsin).
To add to all the problems, the one I'm dealing with is "what's here",
the family myths. I'm finding they just ain't so. Doesn't every family
have a Wicked Stepmother story? Some "young chick" gggrampa married the
moment the last shovel full of earth was......well you know. The young
chick who made off with half the family fortune and that chest of drawers
and.
Well I'm discovering that these stories were passed down through the
clan's collective consciousness most likely from a child who had lost
their sainted mother in childbirth. I'm finding that the ugly
stepsisters weren't quite; that the young chick cared for the old man
she married through thick and thin, that her pedigree (from around the
landing of the Mayflower) stands up against the Virginian's a tad better
than the street urchin she was fabled to be (she was the family's
schoolteacher). While yes maybe her parents considered the marriage to be
solidifying the farm - they weren't at all in need of winning the
lottery.
Sometimes it is more difficult to accept the facts of the primary sources
when we are lucky enough to find them. I am still gasping over the copy
of the first old Will I held in my hands. We are "Yanks", this branch of
the Virginia Claytons that wound up in Wisconsin. The family saga
includes not only the gallant men who carried the Union flag, but even
the two old houses in Illinois & Wisconsin, purported to be pit-stops on
the Underground Railroad.
That copy of the first old Will & estate sale the Culpeper librarian sent
me in 1996, when next to nothing at all was online, states amoungst the
teaspoons and the feather beds, the first names, ages, and value of some
fifty slaves.
Genealogy is only for the very very brave.
love from Cynthia, wishing you all happy hunting.
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