As with familys stories are made up to protect someone at the time. I am running into that kind of bigotry in the local community "popular" history that the southern people went and beg the Union Army to come occupy their town. In the official records there is a record of such a request being made. But it was not an 'Official delegation' authorized by an governmental agency of that town. It was simply a couple of businessmen who wanted to make a profit off of doing business with the federal army. But the myth has grown up to the point that those individuals were some sort of heros.
The Union Cavalry did come to the town a few days later after that meeting, but it was because of the town importance to the union defences and strategy. That occupation lead to a sizable battle being fought down the very main street of the town damaging every building in the town and all the southern sympathizer moving to other place even as far as Texas, to excape that cavalrys retribution.
I have found the signatures of several town officials on southern documents regarding the towns function under the Confederate Government prior to the occupation who after the Union Cavalry arrived were "loyal" Unionist afterwards and according to the families always were and had never been anything else but totally loyal Unionist.
This is the type of 'Official" sanitized history that anyone who questions has to overcome. No matter whether it is a oral Family history or written down in Official records and scholarly Histories. And just because it isn't Written down doesn't mean that it didn't happen.
That is the reason they put erasers on pencils. But it hard to erase everything and if you ask enough questions and look hard enough usually something pops up that gives the truth away. In the case of my study of the local History it was a single name that appeared on the records of a masonic lodge of a famous man who wasn't supposed to be have ever been in the town, who commanded a regiment that wasn't supposed to be there either. As a results that little detail uncovered the details of a complete 2 years of confederate operations in the town up until two months before the Union occupation that were not recorded in any "history" book. Hence from personal experience I am well aware that not all history is contained in "official sources" and that some history has been rewritten "officially" to protect the victors and others for their personal gains.
As the old 1950's TV serial "Naked City" use to say in its intro. 'There are 8,000,000 stories in this city (talking about New York, City) This is just one of them.'