In 1858 a patron of my relative’s bar was killed in an altercation with a tenant who lived in an apartment next door. For years, I referred to the incident as a “murder.” The reference to the incident was inaccurate.  I should have referred to it as a “killing,” a “shooting,” or something similar.

Are you using the right word when referring to something?

Are you using a word that may be conveying a message that’s not entirely accurate?

And I actually need to review what charges were brought up against the shooter. Just because a newspaper called it murder does not mean that a court did.

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  1. My mother’s paternal grandfather and his brothers got into something which made them decide to change their surname. It went from Duncan to Davis. Makes it very hard to track down, with any kind of precision. Anytime I asked my Grandpa about it, he just would snicker, leaving me without a clue. I came across my family on a site that no longer exits, to my knowledge. There is was suggested the Duncan boys had committed a murder!

    This was startling and unfair. The poster gave no details to support this claim. I’m sitting here, hard=pressed to think my dear Grandpa would have snickered over a murder. I simply don’t know what to think, nor do I know if the newspaper wrote up about this incident.

  2. There is a newspaper article in May 1849 that accuses my great-great-grandfather of murdering someone in their wagon train along the trail between St. Joseph and Fort Kearny. That is all there is, accusations. There are also letters back to newspapers that were published by others that state that the murder never happened, but my family still believe that it happened. I have done research and have found that the man that was supposed to be murdered, wasn’t! He wasn’t harmed and was a good friend of my relative and continued on with the wagon train to California. He stayed there until around 1852 and then went back to Missouri where his family lived and died many years later in his 80s. All this happened because a few men on the wagon train got angry with my relative and wanted to get back at him.

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