Ah, yes, the beloved "family tradition" as the end-all (and substitute) for the "truth." I have a cousin who wrote (or "compiled" as he would say) a lengthy book on three ancestor families. I agreed to "edit" the book. About once a month a question would go back to him, "where did this information come from, and how valid is the source?" The answer invariably was "family tradition." Well, ok, but it was placed in the book as hard fact. A lot of research and bit of editing gave a good result. In some cases, "family tradition" held sway, properly cited, of course, but in most, the "truth" was somewhere else. The resulting book, although with a few errors (anyone ever find one without errors?) is a good, readable, and useful, family history! The biggest problem here, I think, is making decisions, or assumptions, based on those traditions, rather than treating them as "clues." If a researcher blindly follows a line, pushing and shoving the evidence to "make it fit" with some family tradition (of being related to some famous or infamous person, for example), s/he not only fails the primary test of a professional genealogist (whether amateur or not), but also rules out some very interesting possibilities for the real "rest of the story." Thanks for bringing this up, Marilyn, a good reminder for us all! Pat In Tucson -----Original Message----- From: gen-newbie-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:gen-newbie-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of marilyn E B Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2012 8:04 AM To: gen-newbie Subject: [GN] Family Lore and Genealogy If you have those stories that have been passed down through the years; do you take them as they are or do you validate the facts?................. Have fun with family lore and tell us about some that you have either validated or debunked. Marilyn --

A brother to my great grand mother never married. A fact because the "kin" said so. Also said that the court clerk lied when they issued a marriage license for him (age about 29+0 and the girl was almost 16. Guess someone just validated a document but all was well the old boy was only married about 4 months and there were divorced papers and she asked that her maiden name be restored. (We were at the court house and they pulled the old records for us.) Then there was this great aunt who waited a year+ to marry a man that they all agreed was the father of the daughter that somehow happened along before the wedding. The reason: A fact as stated by family honor, these two were not where they could find a minister (as history tells us this did happened in colonial days however not during this time period). However, this was in MO and the court house even falsied documens according to the family honor. Love these story but sure can tend toward a big BIG roar when mentioned. FAMILY HONOR. ellen Ah, yes, the beloved "family tradition" as the end-all (and substitute) > for > the "truth."