Dear Dover family, Was sitting here thinking about the letters that Dennis posted yesterday to the list and another old letter that we are fortunate to have as a guide, "Dover Genealogy." Sometimes I view the last one as a mixed blessing. It has created a nightmare in trying to sort out the Dover families, because there is so much that can't possibly be true or proven. As I was looking over this letter that Elmer Dover wrote in 1944, I am reminded that as a modern researcher I have to view these documents in the context of the period of time in which they were written. Elmer was probably as accurate as he could be with the knowledge that he had at his disposal. His line, "Hope you can have someone look into the Washington Records because the answer to all of our questions are in those schedules of 1810," is a good example. The only thing that I can think he is referring to would be the 1810 census records. If that's the case, I'm afraid they have never solved all my questions! I have run across this in some of my other lines as well. These people were wonderful to record what they recorded, there is absolutely no question about it. But if you put these documents into context of time, you have to realize that they didn't have computers to research on, libraries full of gen. resources and such. Quite a bit of what they recorded was from memory and stories that passed from one generation to another. Also, their age at times is a factor, as well. Some of these stories could have also changed a little with time as memories failed and details dimmed. My paternal grandparents spent a number of years in the 1960's and 1970's gathering their family data and recording it for their descendants. These were not years of library research time - it was through a lot of letter writing, and phone calls to every living relative they had and others who knew about their families. I've laughed because if they were alive and researching today, we wouldn't be able to pull them out of a library or off a computer. :-) I know that Dennis has posted the 1934 Dover Genealogy to the list. The next time you read it, view it from a perspective that this was not the original document. I have another sorter version, that is not as cluttered with as many details, but other additions none the less. Researchers notes have been added to what was probably in the beginning a very simple document in both of these cases. Another good example in Elmer's data is the number of siblings that his John Dover had. He states that John Dover had five brothers and a sister by names, but yet from the information that Trudy contributed yesterday, there were actually three more sisters that he failed to tell us about. John E Dover has been given credit for writing this account in 1934 according to one version. In the other version, a descendant of John #3 is doing the writing. This John would be the John md Dorinda L Whisenant. Whoever he is addressing it to is from the Martin Dover line. John E Dover descended from the William Dover/Mary Whittice line. The John #3, Martin and William Dover that I've just mentioned were brothers and sons of John Dover/Elizabeth ? The second version that I'm talking about is signed F H Dover. Felix Hill Dover is a s/o John Dover/Dorinda Whisenant and was born Jan 1844. The O A Dover whose name appears on the 1934 version is Oscar A Dover s/o Felix Hill Dover. So, we are talking about grandchildren and great granchildren of John Dover/Elizabeth ? who are contributing to this genealogy, not to mention whoever else may have added to these two versions. The John Dover/Elizabeth is not the originator of Dovers-- he is supposed to be the son of John Dover "the originator." So, it's actually great grandchildren and great great grandchildren of "John the originator" who are compiling this data. If Dennis is on, perhaps he will pull up and post the other "Gen" so that you can understand better what I'm writing about. He's faster than me trying to type it in. :-) Hope everyone has a very enjoyable Easter! Sharon S