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May 2008 Issue
By LaRae Free Kerr
A Comedy of Errors. In three parts. Showing how human tendencies can be manifest in genealogy research, causing errors and what to do about them.
Tendency One: Humans embellish stories. From modern life: “Hillary Clinton met her Waterloo at Tuzla. She’d been regaling audiences with tales of a dangerous landing under sniper fire in Tuzla 12 years ago and then running for cover. None of this occurred. When CBS provided the tape, she was forced to admit to ‘a misstatement” (Charles Krauthammer editorial in Daily Herald 7 Apr 2008, p A5).
From genealogy: Many members of our Free family told the tale that our great grandfather, Absalom P Free, had given Salt Lake City’s Liberty Park to the city. When I spent several hours with a clerk in the county courthouse following the trail of deeds, we discovered irrefutable evidence that it was Brigham Young who gave Liberty Park to the city.
Why did the Free family have that legend? It was simple, really. Many of the Free cousins were descendants of Brigham Young. And it was their OTHER grandfather who gave the land to the city. But somehow all the Free grandchildren claimed the event as their own.
Please learn from these examples that even in your own history, you need corroboration to prove the truth. Hillary Clinton’s people could have asked CBS for the tape, reviewed it and made sure Hillary’s story was legit. The Free family researcher did go to the courthouse to discover the truth about Liberty Park. Now, if I could only convince family members to believe
the true story…
Tendency Two. Some people lie. From modern life: “Of all the stories to emerge from September 11, Tania Head’s was one of the more harrowing: Trapped in her Merrill Lynch office on the 78th floor of the World Trade Center’s south tower, her clothes afire, Head crawled to safety through the inferno – becoming just one of 19 people to escape from the floors above the impact of the hijacked jetliner…(But) Merrill Lynch has no record of employing her…(“Tragedy Tricksters” by Michael Crowley in Reader’s Digest 05/08 p 41).
From genealogy: When I was writing the Wadsworth book 25 years ago, a group of family members threatened and cajoled that I not reveal certain relationships because if I did these people would have to share their inheritance. Even though I was young and amazed at such a request, I put the truth in the book. Anybody who wants to find that relationship can go there and see it for themselves. I did not, however, announce the omission of these family members from the inheritance. Maybe I would today.
Learn from these examples that people lie for one reason or another. The solution, as in the Tanya Head and Wadsworth examples, is to find and tell the truth. Sometimes truth can really hurt people’s feelings, so it doesn’t have to be emphasized or shouted from roof tops. It can be kindly and subtly sublimated, but still truth should prevail.
Tendency Three. People occasionally mix up documents. From modern, albeit fictional, life: In John Grisham’s The Pelican Brief, one document is misplaced, resulting in the death of a lawyer. The document is a coded order for the deaths of two judges which leads to the death or destruction of a law firm, a U S president and a billionaire.
From genealogy: Absalom Free’s first wife bore him two sons then died before reaching the age of twenty. His second wife bore him twelve children, the last being twins Miranda and Minerva. When these two families were put onto family group sheets, there wasn’t room for the twins. So Minerva and Miranda were typed into a second family group sheet. But someone, somewhere, picked up the second family group sheet for Absalom’s second wife, attaching it to the first wife. Forever more, the first wife is listed as the mother of the twins, born 1847, even though she died in 1821. Someone picked up the wrong piece of paper, and the error is perpetuated in the 50 volume set of Membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1830-1848 and continued on WorldVitalRecords.com, though neither started the error.
You can see the error HERE.
Genealogists must learn to “read” the dates and places on all family group records and pedigree charts. They must remember that compilations such as Membership of the Church by Susan Easton Black and many records on the fabulous WorldVitalRecords.com site must be used as research guides, not as the last word in correctness.
Sure I make errors too. But I really try hard not to. Do you?
LaRae Free Kerr, M. ED. can be reached at Itsallrelatives.net.
