Family Lore

If you have been researching your family tree for any length of time, you most likely have asked your relatives what they know about your common ancestors. In so doing you have probably heard many different tales that may or may not be true. In our family we have a story that is a familiar story to most Americans, the Indian in the family and while at one time having a Native American Heritage or Ancestor may have been something to keep hidden, know days everyone wants to have some claim to an Indian tribe.

Now in my family we do have the Native American tale but we also have many others. I have one story that wasn't so much told in story form as was just a stated fact in the family. I have an Aunt that growing up I was informed that she was a foster child that my maternal grandparents had taken in, and in my very young mind (about 6 years old, maybe 7) I figured my grandmother and her 2nd husband as she had divorced my maternal grandfather and he had died by this time, know if I had really thought this through I probably would have thought why would the aunt need a foster parent as she was many years older than her sibling. Many years have gone by since the mention of this aunt being a foster sibling and my maternal grandparents have both passed away, so to verify the information I came across one day I will need to continue my research and see if I can find original birth, marriage and death certificates for various members of the family. But what I believe that my research so far bears out is that the foster sister was not a foster sister at all but a half sister born to the same father but different mothers. I have not been able to prove that my maternal grandfather was married prior to marriage to my grandmother but there is proof that he did have a previous relationship with another woman and had at least 3 children with her.

On my paternal grandfathers side of the family is the tale of Indian blood, as the story goes in short form is one of my great grandfathers parents was full blooded Crow & the other full blooded Cherokee. I have found no proof so far but feel in many cases that I am still in the early stages of research.

We also have the tale of how an ancestor on the paternal grandmothers side one of her ancestors was the man who purchased Manhattan from the Indians.

Or on another branch of the family we have the tales of relation to the James brothers, Queen Victoria, Sir Francis Drake and the man who wrote the Thomasson Tracts.

Any and all these tales could be true but I have my doubts. What family tales are you trying to prove or disprove and What sources have proved valuable to you in doing so?

Danica