Hello, I am fairly new to family history research and very new to research on this branch of my family, so I hope you will forgive what may be a "dumb" question. First some background. About 40 years ago my mother was given a family history by my cousin, her nephew. At the time, I was a young wife and mother and thought it was interesting but I had no time to indulge in further explorations or explanations. Now that I am old, I am vitally interested and would like to know how I should go about authenticating the family history my cousin compiled. The cousin is deceased and there are no sources listed for most of the information, only occasionally is there reference to a source document. In the history my cousin states, "Col. Thomas Ligon was born in England and came to VA abt. 1641. He died in 1675. He married Mary Harris and Mary is descended from Edward III, King of England, and thus from William the Conqueror, through Lionel Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence and his daughter Phllippe, who m. Edward Mortimer, Earl of March, and their daughter Elizabeth, who m. Sir Henry Percy, (Hotspur of Shakespeare's 'Henry IV'). We descended through the Percy and later the Harris lines for 12 generations, etc., etc." Can anyone tell me how I should proceed? Any help or advice will be appreciated, Emily Elstrott in Washington State