One of my favorite sayings in my own study of history is "People believe what they want to believe." I believe the third paragraph merely says that from the confusion of an area's early history later inhabitants tend to put aside specific pioneer's faults, crimes, and pecadilloes and place those early settlers on pedestals for later citizens to emulate. Families do this, too. My mother's family hid their great uncles' work as moonshine runners for Louisville and Cinncinati crime syndicates and some prison sentences to tell us later generations of these men's fine love of music, their great ability to play string instruments, and their love of life. Who knows, I may be a NASCAR pioneer descendant. From such discoveries I have learned, particularly in genealogy, to tred lightly through the historic record until I know where all the minefields are laying in wait for the unwary searcher. I feel a responsibility to warn new genealogy researchers to prepare themselves for finding something they won't like in addition to all the neat stuff.

Anyway, that is my take on the third paragraph. I hope somebody someday won't cover up what I have done with a bunch of mythology, but something like this happens to everybody.

Bruce Nichols