Many of us have heard some exciting or interesting family stories. You may have a family story that you have a Mayflower ancestor, or that you had ancestors that fought in the Revolutionary War or the Civil War.
Record the stories, but take them with a grain of salt. They may not be entirely true! Sometimes mistakes were made, sometimes the story changed as it was passed from person to person, and sometimes misinformation was deliberately passed on to family members. Look for documentation to confirm or disprove the stories.
Let me give you an example. When I started researching one of my father’s lines, my grandfather could not tell me the name of his great grandmother and didn’t remember ever meeting her. The story was that she abandoned her husband and three small children to run off with another man, so no one ever talked about her.
As I researched, I found that only a small part of the story was true! I found her marriage record which gave her name as Virginia Burgoyne. In 1900, Virginia was still listed with her husband Samuel Reese, living in Jefferson County, Ohio. Their two youngest sons also lived in the household.
Then, I found that my parents had a photograph of the family in about 1901. It shows my great, great grandfather Samuel Reese, his wife, Virginia Burgoyne and three children….but the oldest son (Harry) was 23, the middle son (Joshua) was 16 and the youngest son (Frank) was 5, so I knew she was still living with the family at that time. After the 1900 census, she disappeared from the records in Ohio, but so did the two youngest sons!
After extensive research I found her again in 1904 using the name Virginia Roberts, listed as the widow of Samuel Roberts and living in Wheeling, WV. I have found no record of another marriage for Virginia. She may have simply presented herself as a widow in order to avoid scandal. Her two youngest sons, Joshua and Frank, were living with her in Wheeling, West Virginia at the time.
She evidently did leave her husband, but she took the two younger boys with her. They both lived with her until she died in 1915. After her death, Joshua was committed to the Huntingdon State Hospital where he remained for the rest of his life. He was mentally ill, and his death certificate lists “Mental deficiency Imbecile with psychosis” as a significant condition. My theory is that Virginia’s husband wanted to commit Joshua to an institution, so Virginia took the boys and left. The only part of the original story that was true was that she left her husband!
