re "MYTHOLOGY"
our COURTRIGHT-cousin Jean Boutcher keeps using this
phrase: "without documentation, genealogy is like mythology".I would like to point out that documentation
is NOT fool-proof either.What are you going to do when
you come across written documents that record a relative
in one document as a father, another document records same
person as an uncle, or another document records same
person as a cousin?I have seen this regards documentation
during the Middle Ages.Even in Modern-times, I have seen
birth-certificates which list the father born in one State
and then on the next sibling's birth-certificate the same
father is recorded as born in another State.Also, suggest
on Internet see the MELUNGEON-site, reading MELUNGEON-
literature, & contacting Dr. Brent Kennedy, Ph.D. of
MELUNGEON RESEARCH for examples more of the same.So you
see, documentation is not an end in itself.In some cases
it can be in error or in fraud.Documentation is not
fool-proof as one may assume.
I also remind that ALL "myth" & "legend" contain kernels
of TRUTH."Myth" & "legend" is MNEMOHISTORY.I quote
from page 14 of the tome MOSES THE EGYPTIAN:the MEMORY
of Egypt in Western Monotheism by Jan Assmann, a German
Egyptologist, (1997--Harvard University Press):"HISTORY
TURNS TO MYTH AS SOON AS IT IS REMEMBERED, NARRATED, AND
USED, that is woven into the fabric of the present.THE
MYTHICAL QUALITIES OF HISTORY have nothing to do with its
truth values.For example, Masada IS BOTH a complex of
uncontested historical facts AND a powerful component of
Modern Israel's national mythology.Its MYTHICAL
FUNCTION DOES NOT in the least invalidate its historicity,
NOR would its demythization enlarge our historical knowledge.""MYTH" & "legend" IS A MEMORY of real event(s)
and real person(s)."MYTH" & "legend" is MNEMOHISTORY.
This needs to be kept in mind anytime one refers to
"MYTH/legend" rather than pooping & putting it down.It
is by the scholarly historian, archaeologist, anthropologist
NEVER disregarded but is used as a tool/as a clue in the
researching of THE TRUTH.
your COURTRIGHT-cousin, Gregory Thompson, B.A. HISTORY &
Political Science (pre-LAW) with a minor in Asian Studies
from Bradley University, graduated 1978.
p.s.:I myself am NOT a "minimalist" regards our COURTRIGHT
genealogy, heritage, & legacy.NOR do I deny who we are.