Family stories evolve and change over time. Problems such as memory distortion, lack of primary source documentation, and the unintentional blending of multiple narratives contribute to the morphing of intergenerational stories. Over time, family stories can become altered, and historical accuracy gets replaced by fictionalized tradition. It is common for family stories to include historical inaccuracies. Such an evolution usually takes place in oral traditions, but many family stories get written down, making them easily shared and more readily accepted as accurate depictions of the past, notwithstanding any potential errors. Concerning the perpetuation of pioneer1 family stories, Keith A. Erekson recently advised, “We should cherish what is correct (the truth), recover what has been omitted (the whole truth), and remove what was added later (nothing but the truth).”2 But doing so is not always simply accomplished. Sometimes errors in family stories are not minor, and the inaccuracies not...
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