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Archiver > MDALLEGA > 2008-04 > 1209385153


From: "Ann Davis" <>
Subject: Re: [MDALLEGA] Living folks?
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:19:13 -0400
References: <cce.2c8717d9.3546ccfd@aol.com>


In re to your Civil War ancestor, and the chest thumping tale. I ran into a
similar situation in my research. There were two individuals (first
cousins) with the first name Jacob. One was a Civil War hero and one
wasn't.
A modern day family of descendants living at a distance from his grave came
every Memorial Day to honor him. But they weren't really his descendants,
they belonged to the line of his cousin, the other Jacob. Someone along the
line had picked up the wrong Jacob in their research. Since the ages of the
Jacobs were almost exactly the same, and they lived in the same area, there
was lots of confusion.
I did discover the error and did try to tell the family that visited the
grave so regularly. With no mean intent, just believing they'd want to have
accuracy in their family line. Didn't work out that way. They pointed out
to me that *I* wasn't in the family and I was wrong, wrong, wrong. No
interest in the facts I'd found. I won't do that again. But it's a real
shame their actual ancestor, an honorable man, has lost his family to
inacurate research.
Ann in OH

----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 2:47 AM
Subject: Re: [MDALLEGA] Living folks?


> I've always told the family members that I talk to, that I'm doing the
> family
> history, to see who we're related to, where we came from, what we've
> done,
> etc.
>
> In doing so, occasionally a skeleton will fall out of the closet, but I
> record
> the fact anyway, and keep going. As I've told several people, I'm not out
> to
> embarrass anybody, just to get the facts. So if Uncle John was married
> five times, so be it. With umpteen kids. Or Aunt Linda had four kids, but
> never actually married. It happens.
>
> My grandfather was an alcoholic, and that's probably what really killed
> him,
> though we'll never know 100% for certain as there wasn't an autopsy done.
> Anybody who really associated with him knows that he drank, so it's not
> like I can hide it. In addition, he loved the ladies a bit too much, even
> evidently while my grandmother was living, and afterwards as well. I have
> several half-uncles & aunts in the southern part of Bedford, Flintstone
> and Cumberland area. It's known, so there's no use trying to play
> ostrich.
>
> I did discover, much to some folks dismay, that a popular story about an
> ancestor's Civil War 'history' was a chest-thumping tall-tale. It had
> been
> told for several generations that he had been captured and sent to
> Andersonville, where he later escaped along with another local man.
> National Archive service record review showed that he had been accounted
> for on the company payrolls for his entire enlistment, and in the
> Cumberland
> area during his supposed captivity. (Revelation of this at the reunion
> after
> I
> found it didn't go over too well with some folks! ;->)
>
> I just record the information as I find it, and document where I found it,
> so
> that I can point out the source if anybody gets too 'excited' about my
> source
> of info. I'm not out digging for skeletons, but if I find one, I'm not
> going
> to
> act like it's the end of the world either.
>
> Just my thoughts....
> J
>
>
>
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