This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: MichaelCharlesWight Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.wright/15365.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I would hope that Richard Wright Sr. researchers would take comfort in the busted hypothesis of a relationship to Wethersfield, CT Wrights, in the sense that now they know they don't have to waste any more time on looking for that mysterious link to CT. A whole lot of speculative work has gone in that direction in years past, such as drawing up the collateral line of Macayah Wright. Of course we all know that many a tortured lineage based on assumptions about given naming patterns within a family line have been proposed whenever there are no other records from which to draw family trees. For those given name links that are not correct, we also know that the longer they go unchallenged the more "factual" they become until they are enshrined in our everyday records (or on Ancestry.com)! Fortunately, the DNA evidence for the family of David Wright of Wethersfield and that of Richard Wright Sr. of Rowan Co, NC are unequivocal. These are two entirely separate Wright lines from England. They are even from entirely separate haploid groups, so there is no doubt whatsoever they are different lines. But the temptation to use naming patterns as a bridge for lack of conventional records is great. The general popularity of certain given names in certain eras does tempt one to investigate the possibility of connections where there is no other documentation, geographic proximity or circumstance to go on. For instance in the mid 1700s Simeon was a popular given name among more than a half dozen different Wright family lines in New England and the middle states. The result is that when all these Simeon Wright men started moving around during and after the Revolutionary War, (a period riff with poor records) we have Simeon Wrights living in fairly close proximity to each other out in the wilderness areas who were mostly from unrelated family lines. Even those Simeon Wrights who were related are difficult to prove. I know of two in VT/NY who do appear to have been related, but it has been a very tedious job for their descendant to show it through land records and tax rolls and other circumstantial evidence. Even DNA testing, as it currently exists, has not been able to demonstrate these two Simeon Wrights were related and the connections is not accepted by everyone who has a vested interest. In fact, there is the backlash response that posits that just because the given name is the same or similar, even unique ones like Simeon or Micayah and Micajah, we should not be seduced into thinking that the families living relatively close to each other are closely related, let alone one living in CT and one living in NC. But when you have nothing else to go on, naming patterns are a recognized basis for developing a working hypothesis. In the Daniel/Richard Sr. case it is now certain that they are not related, but to have ignored these naming peculiarities at a time when there was no other clue to go by is not what we genealogists are prone to do, either. We put up another hypothesis and see how well it flies. This one flew for many years and made it to Ancestry.com early on. Before we had this DNA evidence, this rather speculative corollary evidence for the Daniel Wright/Richard Wright connection was among the few hypotheses the Richard Wright, Sr. researchers had to hang their hats on. I am sure it seemed like a reasonable idea at the time. Now we have the opportunity to break out of all aspects of the CT hypothesis and refocus the research efforts to more fruitful avenues. I don't know how you undo all the Ancestry.com type posts of these incorrect speculative and hypothetical family trees. I suspect they will be out there for a very long time to come and we will have to continue to deal with them as best we can. I am just glad there is a fresh new day dawning for Richard Wright research. It's been a long time coming. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.