Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
Stefan,
You have concluded that some distant relative mixed up the two John Farleys. That would not be unusual.
When DAR did not require exacting evidence it was more common for DAR applicants to mix up same-named people. I have seen many examples of this, and there are thousands more than I have seen.
I also have personal knowledge of a DAR chapter's putting a marker on a gravestone for a person who was never proven to have Rev. War service by an applicant under him. This is not supposed to happen, but it did in this case.
It is also common for family associations to erect new markers, such as on occasion of supposed 200th anniversary of an ancestor's birth. Many of these associations are ill-informed, so gravestone information can be incorrectly inscribed at their behest.
Quite aside from your instance, there are other reasons for gravestone inscriptions to be wrong. Sometimes, for instance, they are not erected until years or decades after a person's death, and the person directing the carving may not correctly recall the date, may have misinformation from a relative who was or was not present at the funeral, etc.
So gravestones, while they can be viewed as evidence, are not absolutely certain documents. They were, after all, made by and on behalf of people -- who can make mistakes.
Good hunting,
Jade
Notify Administrator about this message?
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/americanrev/messages/15898.html | ||
 |
Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|