As much as possible, I base my research on documents I have found, pictures I have taken, cemeteries I have visited, books I have read and basically, something concrete. Some of the characters of our ancestry, I almost know as well as my own neighbors .Some I am listing until I am sure with notes to that effect. Some I have listed from someone else's research, but found early on were often inaccurate. So there have been changes. Then there are the extenuating situations. For example, Henry Roland had quite a few children placed in his care when their parents died. At the time it was called guardianships. It seems a little more like foster care sometimes. But in some cases, the children are known as his children. It takes a while when you find them listed as children on census records to find their real parents. Samantha Laure Roland is a good example. She is the daughter of James Roland and Sarah Caroline Gardner. Since James died when Samantha Laure was a child, she actually thought of her grandparents more like parents, even though her mother was always in the picture.
For this reason, I reserve the right to always change the story to fit the truth if I discover it, and can set out the documents to back it up. Thankfully, there are a lot of documents preserved out of Yancey Co., NC. It is entirely possible to know quite a bit about the daily lives of our cousins. Part of the fun of the puzzles of ancestry is unraveling the mysteries, and unearthing the truth, but it can't be known all at once. Dates differ, as do the spelling of names, and the spouses of individuals. Families are regrouped as lives change and shift. Locations change, and county lines change. In fact the names of the states change, and the people may never have moved. But finding the documents is a constant search for new evidence. So if something you read has changed, then so has my evidence. I will not apologize for making changes or totally rejecting the conclusions of other researchers, or the family stories.
Love always, C
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Recently, I discovered that the infomation on the public domains, such as this one, are not automatically the property of the family, should the author be deceased. The rights to the children or spouse of the authors have not yet been established by law. Some families are having to sue for access and passwords to internet held publications.
I hereby, declare, that the infomation on and access to this blog becomes the property of my spouse, Jimmy R. Wilkerson and my Children, Samuel Christopher Wilkerson, Roland Blake Wilkerson, and Heather Chantelle Wilkerson/Flaherty, and to my grand children, Dakota Drake Wilkerson, and Ayson Ryder Flaherty upon my death or in case of my incopacity. They become the owners of the passwords, and content of this blog and all others produced by me, by permission and by declaration that this is my will. Cynthia A. Wilkerson
