How Do I Set the Record Straight... (Part 1)

In 1988, I went to a family reunion for my Mom's side of the family. This reunion also was a celebration of my great uncle Frank Rueff's 90th birthday. Uncle Frank's family put together a biography of the Rueff family starting with our immigrant ancestor, William Rueff. This was the most information I had ever come across in regards to my maternal lineage. It was a small book roughly 80 plus pages with a pedigree of the family listing all the descendants up to 1988.

Biographies of the key members of the family were written. The person and/or persons who wrote the biographies explained that the biographies were written over a decade from "conversations" with family members, family letters, encyclopedias, chronicles and almanacs. While these biographies were nice to read I believe that most of what I was reading was supposition. Then the questions started bouncing around my head, who had they interviewed? where were the recordings? who had them? My biggest question was where had they found the information on William Rueff?

The book listed the sources that were used to compile this information such as cemetery records, newspapers and court house records which I have corroborated with my own research. However, my dilemma now is key pieces of their research which were recorded conversations, letters, and family Bibles. How do I corroborate this information in 2014? The letters that are referred to are from those who died prior to 1988 and those that were interviewed are now deceased. How do I determine the validity of what I consider to be is lore because I have been unable to find the evidence to prove or disprove their research? 

I began researching my Rueff lines again trying to find what I may have missed over the years. By 2009, more than 20 years after this family celebration I was still unable to corroborate a lot of the information in this small history of my Rueff lines. How do I set the record straight without hurting family members whose research may not be entirely accurate? It is not my intention to hurt anyone's feelings or to declare their research invalid I only want to set the record straight for the future generations. 

Now in 2014, new collections from Europe on both Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org and more European records added daily I am hoping that I can finally find answers to my questions.

Wordless Wednesday

I've recently have reconnected with my cousin Scott. These are some photos of us. In the picture on the left are Scott, my Aunt Peggy Ann (Scott's Mom), our grandmother, Peggy, my Dad Bill, my Mom Nina and me. The other 2 photographs are of Scott and I with our grandmother Peggy Rich Williams Hammond.