Hypothetical Ancestors

(Image I found on ancestry.com)

Last Summer I became obsessed with Ancestry.com.  The show "Who Do You Think You Are" helped with that, because I wanted to find historical stories that my family's connected to.  So on the Internet I went, and a few months later I came up for air.

During that time I found a lot of ancestors, but the further back I got, the more questions would pop up.  The problem? I was pulling from the research of other people, and the more people who are involved, and the more research being done, the more opportunity there is for disagreement and misinformation.  Now and then I would look at census records, but I was more concerned with how far back I could get without a thought of proving any of those names, or whether parents and great-grandparents of any name I was looking into were even right.  How many John Smiths are there?  And how do you know if that John Smith belongs to you or not?

So in the end I've managed to find a bunch of ancestors, 697 of them, complete with stories and pictures, that I may or may not actually be connected to.  But the problem is emotional investment!  There are individuals currently sitting happily on my tree that I've grown to love, and I don't want to push them off only to be replaced.

These particular individuals I lovingly call Hypothetical Ancestors.  I'm hypothetically related to them until further research is done to clarify or disprove the fact.

One such individual is a man by the name of James Patrick (1730 Virginia -1835 Kentucky).  Just looking at those dates makes you want to scratch your head.  Hypothetically I come into his line through his hypothetical grand-daughter Mary Polly Patrick who married a Richard H. Stufflebeam, and her father was a Hugh Patrick.  Tracing a Stufflebeam line isn't terribly hard. How many Stufflebeam's do you know?  I had to prove to google that Stufflebeam was a real surname!  They didn't believe me at first.  The problem comes from the way census records were kept in the 1700's and 1800's.  Head of households were mentioned, but the names of those living with the head of house, plus relationships were left out.  That makes tracking difficult.  So there is much debate on whether Mary, Hugh, and James are Grand-Daughter, Son, and Father/Grandfather.

Why do I even care?  Because James Patrick was heavily involved in the Revolutionary War, and claims in his pensions that he knew President George Washington long before the Rev. War, having fought with him in Braddock's Defeat near Fort Duquesne, and he served as one of Washington's scouts during the French and Indian War.  Then during the Revolution James was in and out of the war, constantly reenlisting, First joining March 2, 1776, and the last time February 12, 1781, with many enlistments in between.  It would be cool if I could call him my 5th Great-Grandfather, but I don't think I'll ever find the proof to do so. 

I can just hear all the true genealogist moaning out there!  Oh the sloppiness of my research!  It has been sloppy, and now I must start back with myself and question everything.    

Sarah

Research done on Ancestry.com

and Pension Record found on Fold3.com