Identifying Gramps But Proof Isn't So Easy To Come By

The true identity of one of my 6^th great grandfathers has been a puzzle to me and other researchers for many years.  When I first researched this member of a prominent Connecticut founding family, he was pronounced the son of another member of this same family but there were never any sources to prove this.  Now, I’m a stickler for citations.  If I don’t have a minimum of 3 sources, I never can swallow that fact whole.  About 6 months ago, I decided I would only focus my genealogy research on this guy until I cracked his identity. I’m such a glutton for punishment….

It took about 2 days to be 99.9% sure that I had successfully figured out exactly who Gramps was.  That’s it!  2 days!  Well, this is gonna be a piece of cake, I thought to myself.  Get the sources and share it with my far flung cousins who have been racking their brains for all these years.  A huge piece of my genealogical frustration had been put to bed.

Ha!  6 months later, I sit here twitching and twittling my thumbs. After going through close to a 1,000 out of print books, documents and stories with a fine tooth comb, I am officially losing my mind. Besides backing up his birth date, I can’t come up with any other source to cite.  See, I truly believe Gramps just didn’t use his given name and why would he?  There were, besides his father, about 5 other members of this family using the same name at the same time as well. Records for Gramps are only in his given name or the name he used, never both.

His birth date fits, birthplace fits, his move to another state and county fits, the naming of his children fits, EVERYTHING SEEMS TO FIT!  But those elusive citations never come.  Until they do, I’ll continue searching and believing and losing my genealogical mind.