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From: <>
Subject: [RHEA-L] Tip#155-the Gospel according to Aunt Lizzie
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 12:38:34 EDT

Subj: TIP 155 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO AUNT LIZZIE SYNDROME
Date:98-06-16 07:46:46 EDT
From: (Sandi Gorin)
To:

TIP #155 - THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO AUNT LIZZIE SYNDROME

Today's tip is courtesy of Bill Utterback who is the list owner of
KYJACKSON-PURCHASE, and an extremely knowledgeable in researching
techniques and history of Kentucky. He has graciously permitted me to
reprint a tip which recently appeared on his list, and I have added some
comments of my own at the end.

"Almost every family has an elder matriarch or patriarch to whom we go for
family information. In most cases, the elders of the family also can thrill
us with their bits and pieces of other data, besides the facts about their
peers which we need to know, and which they may be in a position to tell
us. How many of us have been told that we had Native American blood in our
veins, or that two, or three, or four brothers "came over from the old
country" and founded the family in America, or some other family tradition?
Many of you will be nodding your heads, as you recognize and remember these
family traditions.

The problem for genealogists relative to family tradition is twofold: in
the first place, it is very easy to become so convinced that a family
tradition "just as to be true because Aunt Lizzie said so", that we begin
to try to shape genealogical fact to meet our need to prove Aunt Lizzie
correct. And, in the second place, if Aunt Lizzie is still living, and if
we should prove the family lore which she so lovingly related to us is
false, there is the very real possibility that Aunt Lizzie - or others in
the family - might feel that we have impugned her integrity or honesty.

One of the most vivid examples of the misuse and misconstruing of family
tradition can be seen in Alex Haley's work, "Roots". In that work, Haley
attempted to take the family lore about his "ancestor", Toby - or Kunta
Kinte, as he supposedly called himself - and prove it to be true. Over the
years since the publication of "Roots", very detailed research has been
done to backtrack Haley's own efforts and his own scholarship as he tried
to prove that family tradition, and, almost without fail, every significant
"fact" which he proffered to document his lineage has shown to be incorrect
or false. It has had an unfortunate effect on those interested in pursuing
African-American genealogy, since it stressed "oral tradition" over
documented fact. So how do we avoid that same pitfall?

The best approach - and the one that I have taken over the years - has been
to try equally as hard to disprove a family tradition. For example, I have
a Bailey line in my background, and perhaps a half dozen people over the
years have told me that their grandmother, or great-aunt, or some elder
family member, had told them that there was an extraordinary Choctaw Indian
man in our ancestry by the name of John Armstrong(and the name "Armstrong"
can be an Indian name), and that he had been, in the 1700's, educated at
Oxford, and was, in all respects, one of the more privileged people of his
time and background. I set out to prove or disprove that story, which came
from different people (who did not know each other) at various times over a
ten year period. There was, in fact, an ancestor named John Armstrong
Bailey, who was my ggg-gf. That was an interesting development, when I
discovered him. Going back into the 1700's, however, I found that John A.
Bailey was, in fact, named for his great-grandfather, John Armstrong.
Further research, over a long period of time, indicated that John Armstrong
lived in England for a time, did attend Oxford, and, in America, he was
well known among the Choctaw in Georgia, as he traded with them and was a
good friend to them. So, we somehow, over 200 years, had gone from a man
who was named John Armstrong, and who did attend Oxford, and who worked and
helped the Choctaw nation, to a Choctaw Indian man who went to Oxford.

Family traditions give us a hint of where to go and perhaps a pinch of
information about what we may hope to find, but we always need to try to
remember that just because Aunt Lizzie says it is so does not automatically
confer sacredness on her statements. A wit once remarked that it is amazing
how a sheet of paper will just lay there and let anyone write anything on
it. The same can be true with spoken tradition. In the 19th century,
storytelling was not just a pastime - it was really an art, and
embellishment was a part of that art. As long as we keep all of that in
mind, we'll do alright with how we handle those family stories."

Now to Sandi's comments.

What Bill has said is painfully true. I would like to cite some other
examples that I have run into with first a comment about "Roots". Although
much of the authenticity of Haley's works has been in dispute, it did
accomplish something very important. It DID get a lot of people of
African-American ancestry interested in finding out more about their roots!
It gave many a sense of determination to find out more on their families
and have inspired many Black youth to start talking to their elders and
putting total an oral history of their family whether 100% accurate is
always in question, black or white!

When I was deep into my research on our families, I was met with a family
member, quite intelligent, quite well-known, quite learned, who was more
than glad to share some of the most fascinating facts with me. I spent
several hours with him, writing and taping fiendishly. I had no reason to
doubt his accuracy as he was describing events involving his own personal
life and those around him. However, just before "going to press" with a
family book, another family member, quite closely related, asked to see a
copy of this fabulous story. Well, needless to say, 99% of the material had
to be pitched upon inspection, as the individual was simply volunteering
information the way he hoped he would be recorded, not the way it actually
happened! I was saddened but thankful to have found out before publishing!

On the other side of the coin however. A dear lady in another state wrote
me early in my researching days in my county trying to seek information
about a relative here, "crazy Aunt so and so" who said that this relative
was hung in the county. She was trying to prepare a family history book for
her grandchildren and doubted the accuracy of her aunt's stories! My simple
reply back to her was 'Would you like an 8 x 10 glossy of the hanging?" Her
relative had indeed been hung here, the last legal hanging in the county.
So, this time, Aunt Lizze (or whatever her name) was being accurate.

Another tale in our family came down that one of our not so distant
ancestors had something very important to do with the typewriter. Hmmm.
After 30 some years of hit and miss researching on this great great uncle,
lo and behold I find a book listed in the Library of Congress by him and
find that he indeed did make a significant contribution. He invented the
space bar on the typewriter and had even published a book about touch
typewriting - that course so many of labored over in high school!

So, we have to do as Bill suggested; work just as hard to disprove as to
approve. Maybe we will never find the actual truth. In that instance, I am
prone to include it in my writings but stress that this is ORAL tradition
and that I am unable at this time to confirm it. Perhaps one of our
children or grandchildren can finally find the absolute documentation that
Greatgrandma Pocahontas was indeed of Cherokee heritage and not just named
that because it was "in" to use the name. Or that Uncle Harry wasn't known
as a great horseman and was kidnapped somewhere out west - but that he had
been a horse thief and took off for parts unknown! Oral tradition and
family tales make our family history live, if we remember as Bill says that
story telling can be embellished over the years and grow from generation to
generation. The noted author, Lynwood Montell has many books in print on
folk tales, ghost stories and superstitions of this part of Kentucky and
Tennessee. He has them methodically categorized as to location, age of
teller, variations on a theme, etc. It is interesting to note that many of
these stories grew out of the same source, but each family added their own
"twist" to the tale. After a generation or so, each family swore that it
happened to THEIR family, when in fact it was an oft-repeated story that
had been heard so many times in front of the fireplace in their woodland
cabins, that it became the gospel truth to them and became part of their
history.

So, if you are faced with Aunt Lizzie tales; go out and challenge them,
investigate them, disprove them or prove them! That's one of the fun things
of genealogy! Our pastor out in Arizona, George Whitehood, prefaced his
little book on his family history with this statement: "This is a story of
the way it might have been by someone who wasn't there."

Copyright 16 April 1998, All Rights Reserved, Bill Utterback and Sandi
Gorin.

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