[BITList] A root-and-branch inquiry

[HUGH]

John,

I have contacted a few 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins, but my cousins record is an
8th cousin from Henley on Thames.  On her version of the family my great
great great grandfather never married or had children, hence I didn't exist.
On Lt Jocelyn Feltham, making direct connections with early Americans is
hard, which doesn't stop some Americans launching into wild speculations
that soon settle down into certainty, based only on names.  I had an inquiry
recently from a lady who had an interest in a name of which I have done
pretty much of a one name study - Vallance - and she sent me her version of
things, some of which I recognised from my own files.  I corrected it and
sent it back, thinking to assist, and that ended the correspondence.  When I
started, I tended to look a things through a slit, so I'd have ignored the
Lieutenant as being "no relation of mine", and failed to record him.  Later,
I learned sense, so keep plugging away at him.  My maiden great aunt Maggie
visited her uncle William Adam, a wealthy farmer, on what became his
deathbed.  On her being announced to him, he said, "She's no relation of
mine."  Her father, my great grandfather, disappeared in Australia sometime
in the 1890s.  He went out alone, perhaps to spy out the prospects, and
vanished.  Last seen in Sydney, as I recall, by a friend of the family who
couldn't get across the road to greet him because of a parade.

Hugh.