Fact Checking Family Folklore

My mom loves to tell a story of when I was two years old. I was an enthusiastic but unskilled butterfly wrangler. When I tried to catch the delicate wings with grubby fingers, she would caution me, “Be careful. Don’t hurt them.” My tot mind interpreted her warning much differently than was intended. Instead of me not hurting the butterflies, I thought she meant for me to be careful, the butterflies might hurt me. Apparently, it took quite some time before I wouldn’t run screaming whenever I spied one flitting past.

My childhood mishap can be applied to family lore that gets passed down through generations of storytelling. Most families have some version of one: Native American princesses, seven brothers travelling to America, or a member of Billy the Kid’s gang of outlaws. Facts and details can easily get distorted and stories can get embellished to make events more interesting to the listener. One thing we forget as we build our ancestors tales is that they were human too. They didn’t always tell the truth and sometimes the truth was deliberately buried beneath convenient fabrications. It then becomes our job as genealogists to sort out fact from fiction.

Take my 3^rd great grandmother for instance. Sarah Jane Johnson was born in Ohio in 1830 to a Charles Johnson and Anna Scott. In 1847, a man by the name of Reese Davis purchased a plot of land next to her family home, they were married in February 1848, and September of that year saw them welcoming their first child. Now Sarah Jane was a strong woman, but she led a tumultuous and adventurous life. Before her death in 1903, she had buried 6 of her children, her husband had declared bankruptcy, their marriage fell apart and they had started divorce proceedings. Sarah eventually left and moved with her two youngest daughters to Texas, where she founded a pioneering legacy. 

                                     

While her life on the Texas frontier was well documented, a lot of questions remained about her husband and the father of her children, Reese Davis. Where did he come from and what became of him? Family lore contended that Reese Davis was born on a ship coming from Wales, he eventually settled in Cincinnati, OH, and that he died around 1876 during a trapping expedition, leaving Sarah a widow. But what was truth, what was embellishment, and what was merely a tall tale of Texas?

I started by evaluating and investigating each part of the story in question. Then, working with my mom, we gathered both positive and negative evidence. We dug through census, divorce, land, cemetery, and probate records and were finally able to make some surprising conclusions.

Reese Davis (1823-after 1880)
Photo displayed at 1984 Davis Family Reunion

Reese may have been of Welsh descent, but he was born in New Jersey. His family eventually settled in Warren County, OH, where he met and married Sarah Jane Johnson. After the divorce in 1873, Reese and two of his daughters ended up in Missouri, where he was found alive purchasing land in 1880. There is speculation about his actual death date, but due to a courthouse fire, it is currently unclear when his estate was probated. Obviously the bulk of our family stories, as interesting as they may have been, weren't exactly total truth.

My mom and I compiled our newfound evidence and began to rewrite the family story. Our research paper goes into further detail of why we came to our conclusions and provides the sources we used to support our thesis. But while we have publicly released our findings, we acknowledge there is still more work to be done on this line and plan on supplemental research documents. I’m hoping that DNA evidence will help clarify Reese’s family in New Jersey, and that land records will help show when his property was sold after his death. Continuing to search family, associates, and neighbors might reveal additional details. Piece by piece, a new tale is emerging, one that encompasses and explains the old, but embraces the truth. A tale I can hopefully pass on a bit more accurately to my children and one that will give them a better appreciation for family lore and the truths it can reveal.  And ultimately, one that won't send them screaming in fear every time they hear, "Did I ever tell you the story about...?"