“Great-grandma Neill wouldn’t let Nellie date the Humke boy because they were related.”
I know someone told me that. I am not dreaming it. I had already known the Humke boy was related, but the dating (or potential dating) was news to me. I remembered the tidbit while doing something completely unrelated and the statement just popped into my memory from out of nowhere. The problem is that I cannot for the life of me remember who told what great-grandma said. I will include the statement in my notes on these individuals, but indicate clearly that I cannot remember who told me this or when I was told this.
It is even more frustrating because I was told this little nugget years after I had started genealogy and knew the importance of writing things down as soon as possible. At least that is when I think I was told it.
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For several years now I do one of two things when I hear, or see, a piece of information like that. If it is in text on my phone or something I see on fb, I do a screenshot and send it to my email or Google Keep. If it is simply something I hear, I open Google Keep and record the information in that moment. It usually only is a 10-15 second use of my time in the moment. Later when I am in front of my computer, I routinely check those things to add to a story or to my database.
One of the driving forces behind my interest in researching my family history was verifying or disproving those “little nuggets” of information I or a relative had been told.
Did my Great uncle John really get sucked under quicksand and die, like Grandma said – nope, it was probably just a ruse to scare me away from playing by the river. Was my Nana nearly blown away in a tornado that leveled the town she had moved to – yes! Did one branch of the family arrive in the 1600s to escape religious persecution, no! Everyone came in the 1800s.
Of course, equally important is knowing if the person who told you the information wants to know the documented truth. Truth teller beware! Lol