I would like to give thanks to all of the people who have contributed to the Rector research that I have been writing about. It all started with John Gott who rummaged around in the loose papers and found material that had been forgotten. This showed that what had been accepted truth was, in fact, false. This is the first step in improving any theory. Find and highlight the flaws and don't cover them up.
Before the problem was solved, it grew more complex. Barbara Vines Little found there was another John Rector who needed a home. The records that Barbara used were all public information that was available to all. No one had ever put it together and come up with the correct answer until she did so.
John Alcock located where this "newly found" John Rector should be placed, which only compounded a problem as to who Harman Rector, Sr.'s, sons were.
Through the years, Tommie Brittain had been asking questions, gathering data, and hoping to place her Uriah Rector. She had been led down a false path by B. C. Holtzclaw but her problem was eventually solved by John Alcock who found the necessary information in the records.
Meanwhile, James McJohn, with the assistance of William H. Rector, found that an assumed relationship was not supported by the records. He also found the correct placement for Lucinda Rector.
My role in this was to provide a place where the information could be published and made available to the public. As a result it is now stored in major libraries throughout the nation. In these notes I have given the highlights of the information but generally there is more detail in the printed format than has been given here. The full set of information, in the court case that John Gott found, is available from me for the cost of mailing, i.e., an SASE (business size with 55 cents of postage).
NOW, in all of this there is a lesson for researchers of all families. One should never be complacent about the history that is given to you. Many major researchers worked on the Rector history prior to the research that I have recently outlined. There were some major mistakes yet it looked good on the surface. It should humble us to realize how incomplete is our data, and how insecure are the conclusions that we draw from. More effort should be devoted to improving the quality of our information rather than the quantity of it.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.