RSometimes it's good to be a 'Doubting Thomas'

I was talking with a new-found cousin recently and we were discussing a book she had offered to share with me. Most family history books written early on, and even those written in the 1980s, are no longer in print. The only way to take advantage of the material is to copy the whole book, or at least the parts pertaining to your family. I know ... there are copyright questions, but let's save them for another column.

During our conversation we discussed the various family researchers who had helped us along the way, one in particular, who had given me mounds of information on my mother's family.

"You, know," I said, "he was really great. He gave me just enough information to get me started ... stuff I could start looking up and begin to find things for myself."

My cousin replied, "Oh goodness. I wouldn't have liked that. I want it all done for me."

I couldn't stop myself and blurted out, "Then how do you know it's right?"

"Well, because so-and-so did it," she said. "And he's always right."

It was obvious that she and I looked at genealogy from totally different perspectives and I didn't even continue that thread of the conversation. No one is always right. Everybody makes mistakes ... even genealogists who have alphabet soup after their names, indicating that they have been certified as experts. And just because information appears in a book doesn't mean it's always true. It's up to you to verify any information you put into your family tree. If you don't, you are just propagating mistakes and shortchanging your ancestors. You may never know the real truth.

That would bug me to death. A little serious doubting is good in genealogy. I, for one, am uneasy until I connect all the dots and have a credible source as a reference for my research. This means finding a primary record that leaves no room for error. Let me give you an example.

When I first started researching my Fowlers, a family which had never been done completely, I traced my ancestry back to a Nathan Fowler of Gwinnett County who said he was born about 1800 in Tennessee. I did this with the help of others who were connected to the family. My ancestor and GGgrandfather was John Fowler, supposedly the son of Nathan.

"Oh, yes," everyone said." John was Nathan's son." You could almost see them nodding their heads and accepting it as fact.

"How do you know?" I asked. And, although everyone had him as Nathan's son, no one could give me a verifiable source which proved it. He had just always appeared in everyone's family tree as being a member of that family.

The first census which listed all children in a family by name was, of course, the 1850 census. Yes, Nathan was there with his wife, Elizabeth (last name unknown), and several of his children, but my John was several houses away. Living next door to Nathan was a Reuben Fowler with a son named Nathan. That was almost a "gimme." Reuben was almost assuredly Nathan's son, even though he was not actually listed in the household. The other children were Sarah, Kelly, Zephania, Elizabeth, Marion, Matilda and Martha Ann. But, there were no Johns in Nathan's family that we knew of, and no Nathans in John's family. I had followed it through to the death of both John and his wife, Sarah Ann Norris and the children were Nancy Elizabeth, William Jethro, George Wilson, Mary Kate, Avarilah, and Joel. No Nathan anywhere. So how could I be sure?

The fact was, I couldn't. And I was uneasy about it for nearly a year and a half. What if I was tracking the wrong family? I added a note in the "notes" section of John's family tree on my computer that said, "the relationship of John to Nathan has not been proved." That way I, and everyone else I shared the file with, would know and be skeptical. It was the only fair thing to do.

Well, time went by and, just in case, I joined others in the search for Nathan's ancestry (which we have not found to this day), placed queries on the message boards, and "cemented" all the information on John's family that I could.

Then, the heavens opened up. There is no other explanation for it. I was browsing the Fowler Genforum messages and some kind, sharing soul had left information that there was an estate settlement of a John Pepper in Walton County which listed as heirs all the children I had given as Nathan's and did I know how they were connected to the Peppers? The papers were dated between 1868 and 1871.

Messages and snail mail flew back and forth between Georgia and California and copies of the estate settlement were obtained. There, in black and white, was my undisputable proof. John Fowler had not only signed the papers, but had stated he was due the inheritance as "the son of Nathan Fowler." I was ecstatic.

There were other things in the papers which gave conclusive proof that this was, indeed, our family. John signed for his brother, "Zepheneer, now deceased," and Zeph's wife, Lucy Fowler, co-signed. We knew Zeph had died during the Civil War and that he had married Lucy Ann Norris in 1853 in Gwinnett County. I have a copy of the marriage certificate.

But we got several bonuses. John Pepper was apparently the father of Nathan's wife, Elizabeth, so she now had a surname. There was a daughter, Hester Johnson, who signed the papers as the "daughter of Nathan Fowler." We had never heard of her. The other female children of Nathan, Elizabeth, Sarah and Martha Ann, signed with their married names, so we had other names to trace and find children for. All female signatures were co-signed by their husbands (or another male, as in Lucy's case) so we knew the spouses' given names.

But, for me, the most important thing was that I now had undisputable proof that my John was, indeed, the son of Nathan. My happy dance lasted for days. Had I not doubted and kept searching, I never would have been sure.

The point here is this: Never, never, never accept someone's research as infallible. Doubt until you find proof in the form of an official record. Look upon those stories in the county heritage books and family history books as avenues for research, rather than documentation of your family tree.

The old saying, "If you want it done right, do it yourself," could never be more applicable than in the genealogy field. And, if you are taking the time to find your ancestors' stories, you owe it to them to at least have them correct. If someone did a story about you, wouldn't you expect the same thing? Sure you would.

Got some doubts about your Georgia ancestors? Can you build a story around it? Send it to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; E-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.