Family Legends
What do you think of your family legends? Should you truly believe in them or take them for a grain of salt? Well, I guess that depends on where and whom you heard from it. My material grandmother always told me that her family had ties to Jesse James through his brother Frank James. I have yet to find this true.
I think many children whose parents came out of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Kansas, and other states where they lived and did their robberies and such, was told the similar things, about the James Gang. On my Father's side he shares a quick story of his mother commenting on the fact that friends of the family have left gold coins for the family. And back than the only people that had access to gold coins were bank robbers. Supposedly, these bank robbers were part of the James gang. So as you can see another James relation for another family.
Do I believe it? Not likely, nice to share the tales to other family members. But there has been no connections made as of yet. Not that I am calling my grandmothers, tall tale tellers, I think they love telling stories, no matter if they were true or not. And I am still hunting down clues.
So how do you decipher fact from fiction? Especially, when they are about legendary people. I would start on the history of the said person in question. Look for books, articles, check out maps to see if they lived or were in the same area as your families or where the legend was told. Is there a connection to the famous people to your family along other family lives, as for cousins, or second, or even third cousins? Look closely at surnames and the timelines. Is there something there?
Whatever you may find or not find, the stories are nice to have. It may come from a dear family member, and it gives you something nice to remember that person by.