Let’s talk about “fantasy trees.” Ok, what is a fantasy tree? Most fantasy trees have their roots in family legends. I have a couple of family legends that I believed when I first started my genealogy quest. One was that we have Cherokee heritage in our family, specifically on my mother’s side. This is one of the most common family legends out there. My mother said it, and I believe it, so I’m going to go hunt for it and make it true! In other words,
“I’m going to prove my mother right, no matter what it takes!"
That, my friends, is called “proof texting,” and it doesn’t work!! The term proof texting is more often used in theological circles when a bible teacher or preacher takes a brief snippet of scripture and writes a lesson or sermon around how it validates their world view, giving no heed to the context of the surrounding text. I find the method of proof texting is also common in genealogy . . . it doesn’t work!
So, in my search to prove my mother right, I found this guy in Oklahoma who is the son of a Cherokee father and settler mother, and just so happens to be from my corner of Alabama, and just so happens that there are similarities in our history, AND he has the same surname, so THIS has to be the guy!! This is the link I've been looking for! Then, I write him into our family tree, giving no heed that the dates don't make sense, the places don't make sense, the children are the wrong kids born in the wrong places . . . Hey, somebody else has made a mistake, right? Wrong.
Well, over the years since, I have learned about context and proper documentation. First, there were no Cherokee in my corner of Alabama, our Native neighbors were Creek. The Creek in question were not there after the Trail of Tears, so any intermarriage would have had to be prior to that tragic event. There was absolutely no documentation that this particular person intermarried into my own family, or produced any children in Alabama, and finally, DNA results showed absolutely no Native DNA. It was all a fantasy.
I still see other similar family trees with this same “fantasy” connection to the mythical “Cherokee Princess.” Was my mother wrong? Unfortunately, yes. The family legend was based on her grandfather's stories, her high cheekbones, aquiline nose, and darker skin. Come to find out that we have a well-documented line of Mediterranean ancestry in our family. She got a heavy dose of their DNA! Our fathers and grandfathers were convinced that these traits were Native, not giving a thought to our distant Mediterranean ancestors. It made sense to them, right? So a fantasy tree was born.
Another example is the popular desire to be connected to British royalty or nobility. There are people who, through family legend, fancy themselves to be related to Queen or King Somebody. They then research that particular line, looking for that particular person, not giving consideration to context or timelines. It’s fun to be related to King or Queen Somebody, but without solid documentation it ain’t necessarily so!
So, how does one actually find out if they are related to someone famous? Take the family legend and file it under “not true until proven.” Then start at the beginning, with PRIMARY, and reliable SECONDARY sources.
I have placed the words PRIMARY and SECONDARY in all caps to emphasize the importance of documentation. Family trees that are created by other people are NOT documentation and should never be used to document your own family tree. There are exceptions. If you know the researcher to be a reliable genealogist, and you trust them to document their sources, and you are well and truly stuck, then I would say give it a go and see if their research matches your own family tree. Also, if you are really stuck, you can use the information in another family tree to generate hints, that can lead you to the documentation that you're seeking. Always mark conjecture in your research notes, so that others who view your tree know that that person is in doubt until documentation is unearthed. As always, CITE your sources!
Let’s look at my own journey to Edward I of England. It took me 30 years to document all the family members that led to the English court of Edward I. I had no idea that anyone in our family was royalty, and this search wasn't even on my radar! So, where do we begin? At the beginning!
It began with my paternal grandmother, Leta Knight, daughter of James Calvin Knight of Jesup, Georgia. He wasn’t difficult to trace as we had family bible records, and county and state records. In other words, we had PRIMARY documentation. We also had SECONDARY documentation in the form of census records, and other family records that triangulated and confirmed each other. Cross referencing is essential.
By the way, why are census records SECONDARY and not PRIMARY? Because the information on the census was taken by an enumerator, and thus, “second hand” knowledge. There are many mistakes on census records all because some enumerators did a poor job, or because they asked a neighbor because there was no one at home. Yes, census enumerators still do that today. Ask me how I know!
So, in the same way, through government records, first hand family knowledge, etc., James Calvin Knight was proven to be the son of James McGillis Knight, then James McGillis Knight was proven to be the son of Jonathan N. Knight who was married to Martha Patsy Stafford. The Knight line continues on to a (Temporary) dead end, so, then I turned my attention to the Stafford’s, the maternal line. I did know going in that the Stafford name is prominent in England, and I was curious to see where it led. So, through marriage records (PRIMARY) and Census records (SECONDARY) and similar records of the children, I confirmed that Martha “Patsy” Stafford was the daughter of Ezekiel Stafford (1773-1850) and Mary Eastwood. Ezekiel is well documented in court records, land records, as well as in recorded Georgia history. He was one of the pioneer settlers of Tattnall County, Georgia and is on the census and in history books as such.
Continuing on, I discovered without a doubt (through PRIMARY sources) that the parents of Ezekiel were Joshua Stafford and Margaret Ironmonger. Joshua was also well-documented, a prominent Revolutionary War soldier, found in several different volumes in the public domain plus the 1790 South Carolina census (SECONDARY), Court and land records, (PRIMARY), and in the birth records of his children. Triangulated, or cross referenced, his identity is confirmed.
Joshua’s parents were John Stafford (1669-1735) and Anne Wyatt (1667 – 1733). Again, following the documentation, we discover that John was the son of William Stafford (1662-1728) Virginia – North Carolina, and two William Stafford’s later, we come to my immigrant ancestor, William Stafford b. 1604 in Solihull, Warwickshire, England, d. 1644 in Elizabethtown, Bladen county, North Carolina, and married to Frances Anne Mason in Virginia in 1640. That’s the end of my Stafford line (for now), and all that work took me about 20 years to complete!
So how do we get to Edward I? Let’s back up to John Stafford (1669) and his wife Anne Wyatt, daughter of John Wyatt (1655-1714). Following the same procedure, I was able to trace Anne back to a very strange given name, Hawte. That name caught my attention! Anne Wyatt's grandfather, John Wyatt (1630 – 1670) was my immigrant ancestor in that line, born in Boxley, Kent, England, and died in Gloucester, Virginia. This is confirmed by PRIMARY documentation as he is found in records from England, immigration records, marriage records, and colonial history.
Now back to Hawte Wyatt. This is when we must be very careful to use only documented sources! Google is your friend until it's not! There were people (search "Fraudulent Genealogy") in the mid 1800’s, and probably still a few today who, for money, created false lineages that connected people to “royalty” just for the novelty of saying, we are from King or Queen Somebody! Some of these people, Charles Browning is one, wrote extensive books and lineages that were totally fabricated, and many can still be found today, even in the LDS catalog. So, finding Hawte in a book was not enough, I had to find PRIMARY sources. I found these in both Virginia Colony records as well as in English birth and death records. It turns out that this Wyatt line is certainly landed gentry, certainly nobility, and eventually, leads to royalty. (Knowing these terms in the context of British culture is helpful!)
Hawte Wyatt’s grandfather is none other than Thomas Wyatt, The Younger, AKA The Poet, and he is in history books everywhere! Following the recorded history, we discover not just one Anne Boleyn, but TWO Ann Boleyn’s that happen to be cousins!! Now this is getting fun!! From here it was easy (but tedious work) to connect the dots and confirm that through several maternal lines, I am indeed connected to Edward I, my 22nd great grandfather.
Once you get back that far, and that’s the hard part, Wikipedia is a great source, but it's not a PRIMARY source. I call Wikipedia, "a source of sources." The PRIMARY or SECONDARY sources can be found in the references and citations at the bottom of a Wikipedia page. Good SECONDARY sources to examine are the History of the British Parliament, and The Peerage websites among others.
Granted, if we do the math we all have potentially 4,194,304 direct ancestors in 22 generations, if there were no intermarriage overlap adjustment. Knowing that, being able to trace ONE line of so many ancestors to the nobility of Great Britain isn’t that impressive! All people of European descent will trace their ancestry back to someone in a Royal Court, it's just a matter of being able to uncover the research that will lead us there. I recently read an article that states ALL people of European ancestry can trace their ancestry back to Charlemagne!
Quite honestly though, the more I learn about Edward I, the less I have to be proud of. He was an effective King, a large part of the reason we live in a Democratic Republic today, but he did some horrible things! Along the way, in my 30+ year journey, I have discovered some pretty amazing and truly GOOD people too!
So, bottom line, put the family legends aside, follow the research where it leads, use only PRIMARY and reliable SECONDARY sources, CITE your sources, and NEVER, EVER copy other people’s family trees. You’ll discover many more exciting people in your lineage than you ever imagined. Truth is truly stranger than fiction!
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