Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Who Was William's Father?



One of my toughest research projects has been my 3rd great grandfather, William Henry Harrison Edmondson (1818-1891). The sheer number of Edmondson's located in the south and mid-west is staggering, so tracing the right person has been like untangling those dreaded Christmas lights. The names of his parents were included in research gifted to me, but having scoured much of the online resources available, as well as combining DNA evidence, I saw nothing to contradict the information I had. For years I worked this line and made great progress. I found land records that revealed William's wife's maiden name and family. I had located William's date of death and grave. I felt confident in how my Edmondson line was supported. Until 2 weeks ago that is.

Edmondson children: Laura Opal (my great grandmother), Loretta Violet, Myrtle holding Edna and Elvis, unknown, Carl, Arthur, and unknown 
A comment was made on an 1856 New Madrid, Missouri deed that I had uploaded for William. It was rather abrupt and just stated that the William Henry Harrison Edmondson, child of John Edmondson and Drelinder Norris, actually lived most of his life in Indiana and went by Henry H Edmondson. Huh? Who was this person and what information did they have? I immediately sent a reply politely stating that obviously we had a conflict in information, but I would love to collaborate and figure things out. Nothing. No response. I dug around and found this user's tree, wasn't initially impressed with the information, so went about re-looking at my own sources to confirm their solidity.

And in looking at my file with slightly more jaded, experienced eyes, I began to realize that my own claim was at best very circumstantial. Then I looked at the 1870 Federal Census tied to this “impostor”. There he was, living with his family in Indiana… including his sister, Nancy Edmondson Nunnamaker… who I had independently confirmed in my own tree as being a valid child of John and Drelinder Edmondson. Ruh-Roh Shaggy. I had a problem. It appeared that my 3rd great grandfather may be the “impostor”.  I had to delete the connection between my William Henry Harrison Edmondson and the parents I had recorded in my tree until further information could be found. It was time to rework this file.

In my early days as a genealogist, I made a multitude of beginner mistakes: too trusting of other's online trees, not citing my sources, not keeping a research log. I've spent a lot of time combing through my original work trying to fix poorly supported research, come to appreciate the value of sound research methods, and ultimately how to be a better genealogist. Reminders of my "enthusiastic" beginnings still come up from time to time, but I also must remember that even when practicing sound research techniques, mistakes can still happen.

The hardest part of this whole experience? I really dislike being wrong. Especially when I work so hard to be accurate. And since I have a public tree, how many people trusted my information to be accurate? Yes, every tree needs to be treated with a grain of salt and independently researched, but with the saturation of copy and paste trees out there, how many times had MY potentially inaccurate information been spread around? I hang my head in shame and finally understand the impulse to make all of my research private so I don’t perpetuate, even inadvertently, the spread of inaccurate information.

So now what? I take a deep breath, accept that mistakes happen, and correct what I can. For those that I know might have this information in their tree, I make personal contact and advise them of the issue. I continue to research and hope that I will eventually break through this new brick wall. Based on the dna evidence, I suspect I will return to this line, just by a different route. And finally, I take a bite of my humble pie, and send a thank you note to the user who brought this whole issue to light.

2 comments:

  1. This is a great post and very inspiring on a different level too. Just like family trees can be public on ancestery web pages our lives can be public and our mistakes too. If the mistake is hidden then we can make it right in a hidden way but if our mistakes are public they need to be made right in a public manner because you don't know who you damaged with your mistake. We are all human and we all make mistakes but it takes a lot of humble pie to own up to our mistakes and wrong behavior.

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  2. Love your story.
    Erin Whitworth

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