From personal experience I've found NOT to discount your family folklore - there could be a clue in there somewhere! My Dad was the oldest of four Travis boys and the only son born in Middletown, Orange co NY, the others being born in Hartford CT. It must have been one of those dysfunctional families since the three older boys enlisted for WW II as soon as it broke out. Actually, my Dad was in the CT National Guard eagerly awaiting his discharge at the end of the year in 1941 - it didn't happen and he gave four more years to Uncle Sam.

By the time I really started into Dad's father's side, my Dad had passed on and his mother's side didn't know too much so I was pretty much "on my own". Stories of my great-grandfather having died in a railroad accident, there being a Civil War monument with an ancestor's name on it and the family being French were things I kept in the back of my mind as possibilities, but I wasn't making them the center of my research. I still had to find the family!

I knew who my grandfather was and his brothers and sisters. I started collecting obituaries and finally death certificates, but they were not helping me with the name of their father. Everyone knew Margaret Sexton, my great-grandmother, but her Travis husband was a mystery [she was married three times]. Dad always said his grandfather's name was Stephen - he had died a few years before Dad was born; Andrew's obit had Stephen, also; George's obit had Andrew; and Anne's had George. Leave it to the women to have the correct information! Now I was able to get back another generation and found young George with his parents William & Mary Travis in the 1850 census in the Ulster co NY area.

A cousin from Arizona contacted me after reading my years of posts on Rootsweb thinking he may have the George [my grandfather's brother] I had been seeking. Well, we matched and through our emails we thought of checking the Civil War Pension Index for William Travis, since he disappeared from the census after 1860. My cousin sent for the papers and we had a match, plus a lot more kids, their marriage date and location plus much more! One "family story" verified!

The CW Pension papers listed the surname as Travisse and we noted in the 1900 Census that George stated his Dad was born in France [the only census that listed France, the rest were NY]. But the spelling very likely is French - so we almost have that story verified. Also, I'm sure William's name is on a monument somewhere since he was KIA near Dallas Georgia.

Margaret Sexton's Dad is the one killed in a railway accident. He was an engineer on the RR and walking home across the freightyard one evening for supper he waited for one train to pass in front of him, not noticing he had stepped onto tracks of an oncoming locomotive. He was 74 and still working - long before there was any retirement system for any employer or the government!

I'm first generation Swedish-American, my mother's parents both coming over from Sweden in the early 1900's. I think because of that, I've always been interested in my family roots. I spent a lot of time when I was little with my grandparents and was always asking questions. When Grampy would bounce me on his knee and sing "Acht to lieber Augustine", I asked why he was singing a German song if he was Swedish. That's when I learned during his compulsory military duty in Sweden they were on a German ship and he learned it there. The most important thing I could pass along to those starting out is to ASK QUESTIONS! You may never have the chance again as your relatives age. 

I not only research my and my husband's families, but also those who originally settled in what is now Annville, Lebanon county PA. it's fascinating as many of those early families still have lines in the area and you find a few generations down the line there may even be a marriage between them. A good example is my older son and his wife who have a common grandfather who died in 1793. 

I wish everyone luck in their research and I'm available in particularly Lebanon county PA to help with your roots around here.