All genealogy researchers should take note of the recent Rector mini-series. Fifteen years ago there was a general consensus, fortified by the research of several major researchers, on the Rector genealogy. In the last fifteen years, so much has been found correcting the Rector history that one wonders how accurate any genealogy is.
Not many years ago, researchers had given John Rector, the son of the 1714 immigrant, Johann Jacob Richter, only one wife. Now it appears that he had two wives, and the second wife, previously unknown, was probably the mother of most of the children. Another son, Henry, of the immigrant had the wrong wife. Since there were four children of Johann Jacob Richter, it would appear that more than one-half of the Rector descendants had an inaccuracy in their genealogy, especially since John and Henry had the largest families.
There is a need for an updated and corrected Rector history. There is a lot of previous work to be drawn upon but another corrected and documented work would be desirable.
For other families, note that the correction in the wives of two of the four sons of Johann Jacob Richter depended on one set of papers which might have remained hidden had they not been found by John Gott. In your family, what is the chance that a piece of paper that would alter your history remains to be discovered? Or even more disturbing, what if a correction or alteration in your history has never been discovered because it was never documented?
I have made the point in talks that genealogy is probabilities. One can never be too certain about one's history. The paper trails are incomplete and inaccurate, though one should never ignore the paper trail, nor give up on searching for evidence. Someday, better estimates will probably be made by DNA studies. At least, these studies will raise flags of warning.
In publishing
Beyond Germanna
, I was able to carry more articles concerning the Rectors than any other family. This is not because there were more errors in the Rectors, but there were more researchers at work on the Rector family.
(28 Sep 05)
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.