==================================================================== "GENEALOGICAL FALLACIES: FAMILY TRADITION," by Kory L. Meyerink, AG, FUGA ==================================================================== Almost every family has them, and for the family historian they can be both bane and boon. What are they? The almost ever-present traditions about a family's history. The traditions will vary greatly from family to family, because different events happened in different families, but the traditions are there. One tradition may be about a soldier surviving some great battle or other catastrophe, or a tradition may be that an ancestor was the first white child born in a particular county. Perhaps they have to do with when the family came to America (Mayflower or Ellis Island), or with the ethnic background of the family. Often they deal with a person's occupation, residence, or homesteading. Whatever they are, these traditions have been handed down over the generations, like precious jewels, to the younger members of the family. Over time, in some families, traditions can take on an almost sacred nature. On occasion, a family's identity becomes partially consumed by its oral tradition. So, what's wrong with family tradition? Isn't that one of the elements that attracts people to genealogy and family history? Aren't those stories the very aspects that make history and family "come alive" to the less-interested family members? Those are all good questions. There is nothing inherently wrong with family tradition, although some (perhaps many) specific traditions in individual families are incorrect. They often attract the attention of others in the family and make family history more interesting. The danger in family tradition is the improper weight, or value, that some persons attach to their beloved traditional stories. Perhaps an extended example will best illustrate the fallacy of placing too much weight on family tradition. Over 25 years ago, my wife's family held the following tradition as virtual fact: "Grandfather Andrew Klinesmith came from Holland and was an expert carpenter or cabinetmaker. His family was massacred in the Janesville, Ohio Indian affair. "The Sweat of the Border" by Zane Grey tells the story. His father and mother and sister were all killed. He and another sister escaped by hiding in a hollow log. He then went to Pennsylvania and met grandmother, whose name was Margaret Miller. Margaret Miller's father was given a grant of land for some service and they were well-to-do. Her father did not like Grandfather Klinesmith for a son-in-law, so the two ran off and were married and started back to Ohio." (Letter dated 15 May 1978 from Gertrude Haydon) This is a rich, interesting, and fun tradition, with plenty of significant detail with which to pursue research. However, at least half of it is incorrect. Extensive research on the family has uncovered the truth, and there are elements of it in this story, but following the story too rigidly will keep one from finding the truth. Some elements of this story are easy to refute. There is no Janesville in Ohio; this is likely an error for Zanesville, but there is no evidence the family was ever in that part of Ohio (although they did live on the opposite side of the state for a while. Zane Grey never wrote a book with that title. Most of his books were set in the far west, but one of his Ohio-based books was "The Spirit of the Border." Well, that's pretty similar, isn't it? In title yes, but a close reading reveals no information about a massacre, and no accounts of children hiding in a hollow log. The biggest problem, however, involves setting this story in Ohio and with Andrew Klinesmith. From census and other records, Andrew was born in 1805 in Pennsylvania. He did not come from Holland (his grandfather was Pennsylvania Dutch, meaning German, and arrived in 1752). Andrew was born in Union County, Pennsylvania, near the area where his grandfather (the immigrant), not his parents, was killed by a small Indian raid (not a massacre) in 1780. Only the grandfather was killed; his widow survived through at least 1820. Andrew's father does not appear in the published accounts of the story (see, for example, Annals of Buffalo Valley by John Blair Linn, p. 189). Rather it was his father's two sisters who escaped, and one rolled under a fallen log to avoid the Indian pursuers. Andrew did marry Margaret Miller, who grew up near him in Union County. They did move to Ohio after marriage, and eventually to Iowa. The alleged animosity between her parents and his is hard to judge. Both his father and her parents are buried next to each other in a small cemetery in Laurelton, Pennsylvania. However, a deed from Margaret's father, Henry Miller, to her, for land in Van Wert County, Ohio does not mention her husband Andrew at all. The land was transferred for the "love and affection" they held for their daughter, and for one dollar. The optimists will see the elements of truth in this tradition. The pessimists will want to throw out the entire story. The truth, as it so often does, lies in-between. The careful researcher will probe the story, find that it is not entirely accurate, and set it aside to pursue the truth. Only when the truth is fully revealed can the accuracies and inaccuracies of the tradition be judged. The real value and importance of family traditions is that they should serve as clues or possible suggestions for our research. Perhaps they can even serve as a challenge, a research goal, to prove or disprove the validity of a particular story. However, when we as researchers focus too much on the content of a tradition, and let it dictate where, or in what time frame, we search for evidence, we are falling prey to the fallacy of family tradition. So, the watch cry for the use of family tradition in our research is "caution." It is primarily through careful, cautious evaluation of our traditions that we can avoid this fallacy. ____________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1998-2003, MyFamily.com, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Reprinted with permission from the "Ancestry Daily News".