Does your family history include a family legend (or two?) Here’s some of the family legends we’ve encountered while conducting genealogical research.
Every family has a storyteller or two – an uncle who brings out the same old stories at every family dinner or a great-grandma who shares cherished memories of her childhood with her grandchildren. The best stories, of course, are the ones that are passed down from generation to generation: reverent retellings of an ancestor’s importance in his community, a connection to somebody or something famous, or the mischievous deeds of the ancestral black sheep.
These stories are fun and fascinating and give a family its identity, binding family members across generations, but it has been our experience that accepting these stories as cold, hard fact can be misleading when it comes to genealogy research. Although all family stories usually have their basis in some element of truth, upon closer examination it usually turns out that the true facts of the case have been embellished throughout the years via the telling and retelling of the story from generation to generation. The following three examples illustrate this idea:
The Family Castle
One of our recent clients brought a story to us about a great-grandmother whose father was very wealthy and owned a castle in Victorian England. The story went on to say that grandma had so displeased her father by associating with the Mormons, that he made her and her family live in the furthest rooms in the castle, isolated from the rest of the family, and had left these instructions in his will.
The client was confused by the contrast of the wealth indicated by this story and the records that seemed to show that the only viable match for the father was a working-class laborer. The discrepancy between family story and contemporary records was too great and seemingly could not be validated. Once she brought the case to us, we were able to prove through multiple records that the right father was indeed a shoemaker, or “cordwainer.” It was an original copy of his will, however, that revealed the grains of truth in the family story.
While a cordwainer by trade, the father was respectably well-off and owned a series of four tenement buildings that each contained two sets of “rooms” – one set on the ground floor and one on the top floor. The bottom floor rooms were specifically labeled of more value than the top rooms (and the occupants of those were therefore designated as responsible for keeping the roof in good repair). The father and his wife lived in rooms in building One, and each of the other sets of rooms in each building were handed out to each of his children or grandchildren. The supposedly wronged daughter and her family were also given rooms in building Four, which would have been furthest from her parents but certainly not at all isolated from the whole family, as they all lived side-by-side together. In fact, her rooms were on the ground floor, which would have been the nicest of the group. It’s also important to note that the father’s will contained absolutely no mention of his feelings about his daughter’s new religious beliefs, let alone a specific provision to exclude her because of them.
To say the least, it was interesting to see how the real events had been interpreted and reinterpreted as the story had been passed down through the generations. The best part was that while there was certainly no castle involved, the family had lived in an English city named Newcastle-upon-Tyne!
The Famous Ancestor
Another story theme that commonly runs through every family is a connection to a famous person. Sometimes these are proven true, but many times we find that there was a connection but not one of relationship. One family had “proved” that they were related to George Washington through his great-great-grandparents, Rev. Lawrence Washington and Amphilles Twigden. After carefully researching and documenting each generation in the family tree, it was discovered that only one link was incorrect: the client’s direct ancestor who was a contemporary of George Washington did not marry into the Washington family – but her sister did. This meant that while the client’s direct ancestors were not cousins to George Washington, they would have known his cousins and perhaps the first U.S. President himself as well.
The Skeleton-in-the-Closet
Sometimes, of course, the full details of a story cannot be proven one way or another because no records remain. This seems to be especially true for those skeleton-in-the-closet family stories – not the ones that are told over dinner or to the grandchildren, but the ones that are passed along like gossip with a guilty glance over the shoulder or an eye-roll at the folly of our ancestors.
One client’s family lore included a suggestion that great-grandpa may have been paid off by a wealthy man to marry great-grandma. It was discovered through careful record analysis that the couple was married when great-grandma was already several months pregnant. It was also proved through DNA testing that the baby was not related to great-grandpa, but was actually the biological son of another man who was a prominent innkeeper in the community. These facts certainly lend credence to the story of an extra monetary incentive to marry, but whether such a private transaction ever actually took place can never be confirmed.
In my own family, the story goes that great-great-great-grandmother creatively but firmly ensured that her husband would never take on a polygamous wife by inviting the prospective woman to dinner and putting on an elaborate show as the over-worked housewife and then declaring how grateful she would be to have someone new around to do all the work. Whether this actually happened is not recorded in any contemporary document, but certainly, great-great-great-grandfather never married a polygamous second wife.
From all of this we can take away the lesson that while family stories are wonderfully entertaining, they are not always 100% accurate. As genealogists looking for factual evidence of our ancestors and their lives, we can use family stories as clues to search out the records that show what actually happened in our family’s history. No matter how complete the records, however, there will always be gaps in our understanding of our ancestors and their lives. Whether the factual truth or a version of the truth, family stories fill in these gaps and help us see our family members as the very real and living people that they were.
If you have a family story that you’ve had passed down from generation to generation, challenge yourself to dig up all the documents that relate to those ancestors in the time period that the story supposedly happened, and see if you can find the “truth” in your story. This may involve looking for local newspapers, wills, and land transactions, paying attention to occupations in census records, and many other things, but it can be so interesting! And then at your next family party, you can set the record straight and bring your documentation to prove it!
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Elly - Legacy Tree Genealogists Project Manager
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Family legends are a fascinating topic and this article shed light on how to validate or debunk these stories through sound genealogical research. The list of resources to investigate given at the end of the article was very helpful.
Thanks, Elly….you’ve been a great help to me recently so that made me look into a story passed down by my husband’s family that just never seemed right to me. My husband’s 2nd great grandfather died tragically so I researched the incident and found what actually happened; of course, it didn’t happen the way it was presented to me and this sad story could’ve actually been a movie! 🙂
I would like to know about my grandfather, Houston Frazier born approximately 1865.
I believe family legend is what sets some people on their genealogy search. If it wasn’t for legend I would have never thought to try to figure out how or if George Washington’s mother was related to my line of the Ball family. That opened the door to me finding a king in Scotland, then I went back further.
This is very true! Sometimes it is the wonderful stories passed down from generation to generation that helps “light the fire” in individuals wishing to learn more about their ancestry. It’s always a good idea to have sourced documentation that can help prove (or in some cases, disprove) the family legends.
Thanks for sharing your experience–what a rich history!
Family legends without documentation are like fairy tales but they usually contain some element of truth. I never ignore them but try to prove or disprove them. The problem I’ve had is that when evidence proves the stories incorrect some members of the family refuse to believe the documentation. I’ve learned not to argue with them because it does no good but I make sure I document each step and finding very well for those who come later. Thanks for the very good article and examples.
Yes, the guidelines you practice are what we would also recommend. No need to create family tension, but proceed with documenting your findings.
I’ve found stories of both “truth” & “fiction” in my lines. My “non-official” grandma said she was 12, the eldest when her father died, & had to quit school to support the family. I found the Census the year before he died, & it showed 2 older brothers, both working, and an elder sister. She was 10 when he died. So, did she quit school at 10 or later at 12? We’ll never know.
In another story, my bisnonno [great grandfather] was said to be in the Bersaglieri, & fought in the Italian Independance, esp. against the Pope in Rome. A cousin sent a photo of him, in uniform, to a magazine. Someone answered that it wasn’t a Bersaglieri uniform, “no hat.” Then a cousin in Italy saw my family list on the net, contacted me & sent me photos & documents – of my bisnnono IN the Bersaglieri, ca 1860 -1899! The group photo had several of these men – without a hat!
Shows to go ya, stories can be true, part true, or false. Documents prove which one.
Perfect examples! Stories can certainly have their place, but need to be proven with proper documentation to be considered “fact”. Thanks for sharing!