Every Orange Co NC Ward researcher that I've talked to has fallen into it....I most certainly did. It's Cluster Theory at its most basic. And it's one of those rare times where that method fails.
We all do it. For example, we see a John Doe 3 places away from a James Doe on a census page, both show being born in the same state. From there we just assume that they are related, right? And 97 times out of 100 that's perfectly correct.
How much 'stronger', then, is the likely link when in Wayne Co, Missouri, at least a dozen Ward households all show on the 1850 and 1860 census records as being near one another--and they are all from NC?!
They've got to be related, right?
Orange Co Ward researchers have all spent countless hours at one time or another in trying to find the connection. In the end, everyone of them--myself, most certainly included--came away with nothing. We all came to call it a 'trap.' And that's how the name came about.
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I know--and have experienced the fallout from attempting to suggest otherwise-- that once a piece of information goes 'into print' many people come to hold it true and that nothing can change their minds. This seems to magnify in intensity when the publication is a book, rather than just an internet posting. Since the Wayne Co Ward line has been dealt with in a number of books, I know what I'm up against.
I'm not writing to change the minds of those people--rather, my goal is to show a different version for those who still aren't convinced by what they have read.
In that light, I'd like to approach this in two stages:
1) To show all the reasons why the two groups of Wards in Wayne Co are NOT related.
2) Paradoxically, to show a recent discovery that shows both groups ARE related--but not through the Ward line!
Let's see if I can pull that off.
We'll start with Meshach Ward....
(Kevin)
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