Well, as a former newspaper editor, I appreciate your comments. I had a young reporter go berserk on amphetamines in the 1970s and made up a story before it was called to my attention. It was about a rock concert to be held at a certain time and place in the future. One night, he called me from Toronto Lake in Kansas, saying he wanted to use Toronto as a mailing address for his rock band. I asked him to come to my home and talk about it, and he did. He sat, tapping feet and fingers fulltime, until he fell asleep. I asked him to get help. But I fired him for the story. I don't want to identify him. But I ran across his path later and he was an executive of a company and had straightened himself out. However, that story will have been in print that day forever. Another time I was interviewed myself by an incompetent reporter after I left a newspaper about a festival founded in 1976. I was busy, and she took about two hours. When the article came out in the paper, there was no reference to the interview at all. I saw her at a cafeteria. What happened? I asked. "Well, I found the minutes that related to the beginning of the festival." "There's only one problem," I said: "You got the wrong committee." There had been a committee earlier that had given up on the project. And our committee did it. An irony: A woman with a key role in the founding of the festival was never mentioned. And her husband, who was not, was given a key role in the newspaper because he was on the earlier committee. Mark Twain pulled a hoax when he was in Virginia City, Nevada, that traveled around the world on the AP. I've forgotten what the nature of it was and would like to find it again. I know people who are certain something is true if it were in public records. I can tell you that in trying to get obituary information from funeral homes and from families, it can be a struggle. "We don't want his first wife mentioned," some said. "I said that she would be mentioned if the obituary was to appear in our paper." I told funeral homes if they wanted us to publish them free they were going to have to be factual and if they were not, we would start charging for them. I applaud your research behind the story you mention. It is not something that applies to genealogy. If one doesn't know what is true, it is pretty hard to express the truth to others. Frankly, I think it might be valuable to call attention to the family history in a way that does not have to oppose the obituary. You could say that, due to facts printed earlier, you want to print your version of the family history � and then do it. At least it will get it in print before countless researchers run across the wrong information. I believe these kinds of things are the very reason that respected family genealogists have such a problem with certain books and documents. They keep being reminded of the falsehoods as additional people run across the publications and books. dhamrick@neo.rr.com Dan Hamrick 402 23rd Street NW Canton OH 44709 Phone and fax: 330-454-2376 ---------- >From: motesp@hiwaay.net >To: HAMRICK-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: [HAMRICK-L] Dot Deloris Hamrick Hancock >Date: Sat, Jan 15, 2000, 1:13 PM > >Well, Hamrick researchers, you are going to love this one. My husband's >1/2 aunt died just before Christmas. We just got a copy of the front-page >obituary in her former hometown newspaper. > >I'm not going to bore everyone with the entire obituary. (It had about 12 >inches on the front page with picture then was continued on page four for >an entire column.) From The Cullman Tribune, January 06, 2000, page 1: > >DOT HAMRICK HANCOCK SUCUMBS. > Dot Delores Hamrick Hancock, age 84, died on December 18, 1999, in Foley, >in Baldwin County. She was born on April 26, 1915 to Robert Lee Hamrick >and Lessie Nelson Hamrick, in Cullman County. > <snip> >[The rest of the obituary told all her accomplishments, activities, >children, and grandchildren. Then it concluded, on page 4, with the >following, and I quote:] > >"Editor's Note: > "Mrs. Hancock's grandfather, Jim Hamrick, was an early Mayor of >Hanceville. The Hamricks were early settlers of Hanceville, while it was >still a part of Blount County. Bland School, a one room school house that >served the growing town, as well as Hanceville Academy were not adequate to >the growing population. The Hamrick family was education minded and was >involved in expanded school facilities. The land were the current >Hanceville School is located was once farmed by the Hamrick family, until >1923. > "The Hamrick family, or Hambrecht in Germany, were also involved in >writing the Georgia Constitution and established Primitive Baptist Churches >in Alabama. > "Dot's great uncle, Jack Daniels, a Cherokee Indian, founded the >Tennessee Distillery, even though most of his Alabama kin are tee-totlers." > >And 20 years from now some family researcher is going to find this >newspaper article in some archive and think it's the truth!! > >Fact: There in no known (and definitely no proven) Cherokee ancestry in >the Hamrick (or Nelson) family. Dot's great uncle on the Hamrick side of >the family would have been: William Taylor Hamrick, Charles Jackson >Hamrick, Robert Newton Hamrick, John Warren Hamrick, or John Thomas ROWE, >Joel JAKCSON, Burt DANIEL, Floyd DINGLER, James ROGERS, or George McAlpine. > And in all my visits to the Jack Daniels distilery, I have never heard old >Jack referred to as Burt! (Burt's children were Lucy, Jesse, Mary, >Margaret, and Nancy Daniel.) On the Nelson side, Moses (Lessie's father) >was an only child so there would be no great uncles. But wasn't it a >lovely story? > >Fact: There is no known proof that HAMRICK was HAMBRECHT. That's a >possibility I'm sure. But proof? This particular Hamrick line - from 1800 >until they moved into the German-settled Cullman County, AL - lived in >British-settled communities in eastern Alabama and western Georgia. No one >has been able to document this family in any area other than Georgia! And >many of us have tried! > >Fact: There are pictures hanging in the Hanceville City Hall of all the >past mayors. The third picture, donated by Barbara Hamrick Blalock (wife >of the editor of the Cullman Tribune, by the way) and is said to be James >Thomas (Jim) Hamrick, father of Robert E. Lee Hamrick and grandfather of >Dot Deloris Hamrick. But...there is absolutely no mention of Mayor Hamrick >in any newspaper, any city documents, any election material...well, you get >the point. But Jim Hamrick did sell, at inflated prices, the land where >the current school stands. > >Did a Hamrick help write the Georgia Constitution? If so, who and when? > >Why am I writing this, you might ask? Good question. I guess only to warn >all the researchers to beware of "facts" they read in newspapers - even old >newspapers. You almost have to know who wrote the article and the author's >motivation before you can fully evaluate the article. And how many times >do you know who wrote a newspaper article? In this case, the editor is >married to a Hamrick. He printed some family "legends" - some only known >by his wife apparently. There is a grain of truth in each statement, but >nothing is proven. (I.e., Aunt Dot did have a great uncle who was a DANIEL >- but he wasn't Jack. Jim Hamrick's picture does hang in City Hall among >the other mayors, but it was placed there in the late 80s and is the only >Mayor not identified on the picture by name or dates of his term. The >Ham(b)ricks could have German ancestry; much of Cullman County does; but to >date there is no "proof", other than S. C. Jones' book, that I know of. > >What am I going to do about the misstatements in the newspaper? I wanted >to write a "letter to the editor" and ask that he provide documentation to >back up his claims. My husband won't let me. He says it will just cause >hard feelings and not prove anything. And he's right. Barbara Hamrick >Blalock is his third cousin, and she has cancer, undergoing chemotherapy >and has been extremely ill from that for several years. > >So I'm sharing my frustations with all of you. Maybe one of you will have >evidence that Delton Blalock's words in his Editor's Note are correct. I >would love to be proven wrong on this one. > >Pat >motesp@hiwaay.net >