Doubts at every turn

         This weekend I decided to change my family tree.  For over a year now I have known that DNA evidence was not leading me up the Smith branch of my tree the way I had been told by other researchers.  But I was holding fast that it would eventually be shown that my supposed gggg-grandfather  was a cousin to the DNA proven line.  I like the story that he  and his wife have attached to them.  But when I found myself trying to make the evidence fit my theory, instead of following the trail of evidence to wherever it may lead... Then I knew it was time to give it up.  No point in leaving that on the list, I can always put him back if the evidence ever supports it ,right?

          So with a deep breath I hit DELETE.

         Then to console myself , I decided to dig around a bit with one of my favorites, Hot Grandma Elizabeth.  I  found her Wild Child Malinda mentioined in an old Rootsweb list and began to read about her husbands and children and then----OH NO!!!  The writer suggested that Malinda was the granddaughter of Lewis Wilburn.  Now I am sure Lewis was a great guy, he was the brother of Stephen Wilburn , the grandpa I have listed.  The problem with this Lewis theory is that, if true, I will lose my beloved Wallen/ Walling connection!!!!! I have spent hours reading about the Longhunters and their adventures. I have studied the Salem Witch Trials, and poured thru pages of early New England Puritan history.  Now to possibly lose that whole line!!!!!!. 

       So I pushed myself away from the computer last night, with a very Scarlett O'Hara attitude of     "I'll think about that tomorrow".  
      
        This morning I turned to Morning Wallen, sad that I could lose her wonderful history.  I looked at the picture I had attached to her not really sure what that was, though I  thought it was a page from the marriage records book.  When I brought it up on screen -Lo and Behold- it was a page from a diary dated 1850  listing  births of her, Stephen,  and their children including Hot Grandma Elizabeth! 

From intro to document: The pages copies herein are from an old record book brought from Eastern Tennessee to Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas in 1850 and discovered among the personal papers of Thomas J. Walden, Busch, Arkansas, after his death in 1951

 

 That is what happens when you collect so much you can not keep track of it all.  Anyone that wishes to see that page can find it at Ancestry.com   posted on the Kelsey Wilburn Family Tree