FHF

I'm on a mission to attempt to establish through a paper trail and indirect evidence who the father of John Townley was. I recently decided to jump into searching Wills and Probates. Ancestry and FamilySearch have made accessing these collections so much easier, but I didn't have the best luck. Ancestry.com made finding the Will for John's potential father Effingham Townley of New Jersey easier. They have a collection entitled New Jersey, Wills and Probate Records, 1739-1991 . I learned of Effingham 's five children, one of which is a John Townley. With John being a common name used in the Townley family, I'm not ready to conclude that John in Cincinnati is Effingham's son John. Probate Records, 1794-1902; Author: New Jersey. Surrogate's Court (Essex); Probate Place: Essex, New Jersey After finding this will, I decided to an attempt to look up Effingham Townley probate files. I found two entries in the New Jersey Probate Records, 1678-1980 which is a browse...

A family legend and an interment record point to the origin of my Townley ancestor who settled in Cincinnati in the early 1800s. When I was a young genealogist, I would accept the family legend and the name on the burial card as substantial evidence that the information people write their family trees are accurate. In so doing, I would fall victim to some rookie mistakes.  But no more, let's talk about the rookie mistakes and how avoiding them helps me tackle a mystery on my Townley family. 1. Believing all Family Legends are Accurate Family legends are fun stories, and some of them are factual. However, many of them have alterations that introduce errors or complete falsehoods. We also do not know how family stories start or understand the purpose of misleading legends. In my Geiszler line, a handwritten paragraph details the demise of my German immigrant ancestor. Upon closer scrutiny, many of the specifics are inaccurate or not plausible. Why would my relatives pass along a fals...