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Yes, and I think I mentioned on the forum. The idea that people in the past were more moral is just that: an idea. People have always been imperfect.
That's almost exactly what my old man used to say. He said that he had no more trouble finding a willing women back in the 30's and 40's than I did when I was his age in the 70's and 80's. And he says my great grandfather had no trouble finding a second wife here in the states back in the early 1900's even though he freely admitted he had a wife and four daughters he left behind in Austria.
My greatx6-grandmother was a prostitute whose only child was the product of an affair with a Catholic Mission priest in San Francisco. She was 21 when my greatx5-grandfather was born in the year 1861. We've been able to find the church record of the child's baptism which was done by his own (F)father, who was subsequently sent back to Spain.
It made me so happy to know that they were able to baptize the baby together before he left. I'm 23 and try to imagine being a 21 year old saloon prostitute in love with a priest, bearing his child and raising the child alone.
My grandmother was upset when she heard this, not because of the bastard child, but because of the prostitution.
The book has an entire documentation of family genealogy from 1650.
Jordan, you need to go farther than "a book". You need to prove, with legal documentations ( vital records) your birth, your parentage, your partent's parent, etc. etc. and then locate the person who served in the Revolution and have scholarly citations for it. My husband has all the data... his family was here by 1630. He just never has done it.
******Scholarly texts/ vital records/ wills/ cemetery and bible records... get it? NOT uncited sources on Ancestry!! And SAR uses censuses after 1850 as supplemental sources. DAR not at all.*************
Back in the days of the western expansion, there were often without a township or minister. People got "married" and then when a minister came by, maybe months later, they made it official. Record keeping at a courthouse was a seldom thing too. Courthouses were not important.
Not just out west. My husband's family has phenomenal New England records and when they moved to NY state, between 1790 and 1800 {I can place them by censuses and family records}, there was a church meeting house in 1791. Unfortunately, no on ever recorded anything for years later and neither did the town clerk. So, we have a birth in 1793 we have hunted all over for and cannot find a record. Same with the marriage of the child born 1793 in about 1820 -- no vital record was recorded. NY State recorded in the state in 1880; you are lucky if the town records starting earlier.
Jordan, you need to go farther than "a book". You need to prove, with legal documentations ( vital records) your birth, your parentage, your partent's parent, etc. etc. and then locate the person who served in the Revolution and have scholarly citations for it. My husband has all the data... his family was here by 1630. He just never has done it.
******Scholarly texts/ vital records/ wills/ cemetery and bible records... get it? NOT uncited sources on Ancestry!! And SAR uses censuses after 1850 as supplemental sources. DAR not at all.*************
To be fair, he didn't say he was using uncited sources on Ancestry - in fact he never even mentioned Ancestry.com at all. It sounds like he has a lineage book which may or may not be reliable - whether or not it's accepted by SAR/DAR remains to be seen. Their application form does say: http://www.sar.org/sites/default/fil...11-08-01_0.pdf
Quote:
REFERENCES: Proof is needed only for individuals in the bloodline. Furnish a copy of each piece of evidence such as: birth
certificate; marriage, baptismal, or cemetery record with parents’ names; census 1850 or later; explicit Bible record; court document; title page and pertinent pages of annotated publications; DAR record copy
Which means references from publications (like books) are accepted but it may depend on the book.
So my mom was an "oops". Not so far back but still a big enough deal in 1942 small town Texas that my Grandmother lied about it until her death! She insisted my mother was "very premature" and very "tiny" and almost died. Others in the family countered this, baby pictures countered this, and the simple fact that had she been that premature back then she probably would not have lived seemed to counter it.. but that was my Grandma's story and boy was she sticking to it!! For heaven's sake, I've seen my mom's birth certificate and she was a normal weight, normal length baby but my Grandma always went on about how she was "weak" an "only 4 pounds".
We even found various papers and documents where my Grandma tried to alter things to back up her version of the truth of the marriage date and then my mom's birthday. It's kind of sad, really, that she felt such pressure to lie about it all, even with everyone telling her it was certainly no longer a big deal.
Of course this same Grandma had a complete conniption fit when we found the very obvious clues about her beloved Aunt's sexual orientation as well and the true nature of her "long time friend and roommate" relationship. Complete and total denial. Gotta love Grandma reactions.
You might add you need to check the actual records in case you are using a family bible for reference (or some other non-vital record). One relative insisted my husband did NOT belong to her family as his 3rd g-grandfather was born after the 4th g-grandfather died ( by 6 years) -- it was "in the bible". Well, yes, it was -- only the 4th g-grandfather was in the town records as dying when the 3rd greatgrandfather was about to get married ( He was 22 at the time). Seems the one who died and was "in the bible" was actually the 5th great-grandfather... showed the woman a copy of the town clerk ledger with the death and she had to add an entire line...
My mom had a great-aunt who was the oldest of 19 children (my mom's grandmother was the youngest). Aunt Nel was a life-long "old maid" and childless, and after their parents died, she became the matriarch of the family. There had been talk that when she was young, she'd been engaged, but the young man died, and she remained true to him the rest of her life.
In doing my ancestry research, I found that when she was 21 in 1892, she had a baby girl baptized at an Episcopal church outside of Philadelphia. The minister had written "illigitimate" in the space for father's name, but did baptize the baby. Nel was listed as the mother and several other people signed as "sponsors." Nel's parents and siblings stood with her. The baby girl's last name is indecipherable.
In no census records, and in no family records does this mysterious baby girl show up. The only place she shows up is this one baptism record. I'm guessing they had some sort of quiet adoption arranged.
My mom had a great-aunt who was the oldest of 19 children (my mom's grandmother was the youngest). Aunt Nel was a life-long "old maid" and childless, and after their parents died, she became the matriarch of the family. There had been talk that when she was young, she'd been engaged, but the young man died, and she remained true to him the rest of her life.
In doing my ancestry research, I found that when she was 21 in 1892, she had a baby girl baptized at an Episcopal church outside of Philadelphia. The minister had written "illigitimate" in the space for father's name, but did baptize the baby. Nel was listed as the mother and several other people signed as "sponsors." Nel's parents and siblings stood with her. The baby girl's last name is indecipherable.
In no census records, and in no family records does this mysterious baby girl show up. The only place she shows up is this one baptism record. I'm guessing they had some sort of quiet adoption arranged.
Or the baby died. Have you tried looking for death records?
Or the baby died. Have you tried looking for death records?
I did. I looked and looked, with any variation of what her last name may have been (the writing was terrible). Also looked with Nel's name, since the mother's name may have been listed on a death record.
On one of the future US censuses, I think 1900, it asked number of children ever born to adult females, and Nel had zero. It's like baby Margaret just disappeared.
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For heaven's sake, I've seen my mom's birth certificate and she was a normal weight, normal length baby but my Grandma always went on about how she was "weak" an "only 4 pounds". 
