Tuesday, April 14, 2015

William Mote and Mary Barnes, the Parents of Drury Mote?

I'm currently working on the Mote line of this family tree, so I can get it up on this site but, man, am I having some trouble.  The different spellings of the surname Mote in various census forms and other records don't help matters: Mote, Motes, Mate, and so on and so forth.  Then comes my ancestor's given name, which was Drury.  Or, was it Drewery?  Or, Drewy?  Or Davey?  It's enough to make you go crazy, let me tell you.

Then, I'm seeing on various family trees an entirely different set of parents listed for Drury Mote, than what I'm finding evidence of.  My research points to William Mote and Mary Barnes as the likely parents of Drury Mote.  So, where did those other parents' names come from?  Am I missing something?  Luckily, I found on this blog called DFW Family History, a reference to a Drury Mote, and once I read what they had to say, I was suddenly able to find the proof to back it up, in the form of censuses, etc.  So, now I know a bit more.  Not a lot, but a bit.  I still don't know where these mythical other parents that some people have listed as Drury's parents come from, but I guess as long as I'm confident with my own research, that's all that matters.

The moral of this story is that there is a lot more involved in researching your true ancestors than just typing their name into a historical search engine.  If you don't do the work, there is absolutely no telling who you could end up with.  There has to be records to back up all theories.  And never, ever rely on one website to give you all the information you need.

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