Evaluating Evidence: Who Has the Correct Story?

I volunteer with a small museum in the Sierra Nevadas near Yosemite National Park.  Our community grew up in the Gold Rush era, and our genealogical dream is to build a database that will include everyone who has ever lived in our part of the county.  You can see it by finding the Genealogy pages at www.grovelandmuseum.org or going directly to STCHSGenealogy.com. 

In the 35 miles or so of California's Hwy 120 between Don Pedro Reservoir  and the Big Oak Flat entrance to Yosemite National Park there are two cemeteries.  Each year for Memorial Day our genealogy volunteers lead a cemetery tour of one cemetery.  This year we are at the Divide Cemetery, so named because it is at the top of the ridge (aka The Divide) between the villages of Big Oak Flat and Groveland.  Each volunteer has chosen a family represented in the cemetery to share with our visitors.  This year, one family is that of Dearborn Fuller Longfellow  who was born 8 Aug 832 in Waldo Co., Maine.

Longfellow was in California by 1860 when he appears in the census as running a livery stable in the town of Coulterville.  Just up the road is the town of Greeley Hill, named for cousins Si and Watson Greeley.  They took literally the advice of their journalist cousins, Horace Greeley, who wrote "Go west, young man, go west and grow up with the country!"  Longfellow, yet another cousin, was but one of a small colony of New Englanders settled in Greeley Hill, Coulterville, and neighboring Big Oak Flat and Groveland from the 1850's onward.

We thought we knew quite a bit about Dearborn F Longfellow until Peggy started preparing for her part in this weekend's event.  We knew he had come from Maine, that he was connected to THE Longfellow family, that his wife was born in Australia,  that he was a relatively prosperous businessman and rancher in Big Oak Flat, and that he owned a mine, the ruins of which were still standing in 2007 but which burned that winter.  A model of the Longfellow Mine is a  favorite display in the Groveland Museum. 

Yesterday my friend wrote,

I have to run this by you because it's driving me crazy.  Go to Ancestry and look up Samuel Fuller and Mary Longfellow, parents of Mary Fuller, mother of Dearborn F.
...  Am I crazy or do Dearborn's parents have the same great grandfather?

Good observation, good question.  She's looking at patron-submitted data, comparing it with her own research from different records, and asking if what she is seeing is reasonable.   We looked at the Ancestry-posted  profile views and then at the family tree, giving us a better view across several generations.  We realized that Mary Fuller's grandfather and her father-in-law are brothers.  Yes, Dearborn Fuller's maternal great-grandfather Samuel Longfellow and paternal great uncle Samuel Longfellow were the same person. 

But while we were looking at the tree, another question leaped into view.  The Dearborn Longfellow of the tree was assigned a wife Clara.  Who was Clara?  We knew about wife Louisa, but not Clara.  To further complicate matters, Dearborn was assigned two children by Clara.  His daughter, said the tree, was born in Maine in 1863, when we know Dearborn was in California.

As it turns out, there are two men, both born in Maine, both named Dearborn Longfellow, close in age and likely cousins.  One remained in Maine and married Clara.  The other came to California, married Louisa, and settled in southern Tuolumne County.  The researcher who posted at Ancestry knew the Dearborn he was writing about came to California from Maine.  When he found a marriage in Maine for a Dearborn Longfellow of about the right age ...   The assumption throws a cloud over all the rest of his research. 

My friend and I have decided that since the Dearborn  Longfellow in this chart (as well as in other charts of the same family) is consistently reported as coming to California, then the line backwards is probably correct.  We have the marriage records from California, burial records of Dearborn, Louisa and several of their children, and copies of correspondence from the youngest daughter.    We are confident our research from Dearborn forward is correct. 

Notes to self:

• Question conflicting evidence.
• Evaluate the sources.  The closer to the date the event happened, the more accurate is is likely to be.  Original documents are generally more reliable than oral history. 
• Look for those original documents.  The Index to Tuolumne Co. Marriages 1850-1900 lists essential data -- Derbon (sic) Longfellow married Louisa Wootten (sic) on 29 Oct 1862.  The marriage registration in the courthouse shows that her father had to give his permission for her to marry, showing that she was a minor.  It also shows that her father wrote his own name as WOOTTON -- not Wootten or Wooten as we often see in other documents. 
• Evaluate again.  
• Now update your database!

Happy Hunting!