American Genealogy: Clues and Steps in the Ancestor Search

Online parish records in England

2012-01-29T20:22:00.000-08:00

If you are already using the online IGI county indexes in England, you have access to a wonderful resource for parish records. The online OPC (online parish records) is also excellent, and actually quite amazing in how easy it is to use and how many records are transcribed. Only a few counties have been done, but do look into those counties if you have ancestors there. The Sussex OPC is very impressive. It is very easy to search by surname, and has many records. It is easier to find a birth, marriage, or death date there than on IGI, in my opinion. And the birth records include parent names if they were available. Pair those results with what you see on the public member trees on rootsweb or ancestry..com, and with census records, and you will find you can really confirm or begin to question, some of those ancestor connections.
http://www.sussex-opc.org/

Searching in Australia!

2012-01-22T20:40:00.000-08:00

If you have British or Welsh ancestry, you may have cousins in Australia. An excellent resource for Australian searching is "Trove," sponsored by the National Library of Australia. It is a repository for digitized newspapers, and like most of these types of websites, it is excellent. It is very searchable, and has an added plus, which is that the article content is presented in a sidebar in a more legible script than you see in the scanned newspaper article, which is also visible.
Whoever thought of this, it was a brilliant idea.
I finally found the entire story of a the accidental death and funeral of a distant cousin who died in the 1880's.
Signing up is free, and it appears that searches without signing up are also possible.
Check it out at: http://trove.nla.gov.au/
Image from: flynationwide.co.za

Scanned marriage documents in UK at ancestry.com

2012-01-16T21:36:00.000-08:00

Recently, I have been researching UK vital records, and I have been very pleased to find scanned marriage records from the UK. This is a great boon to research, as ordering each record that might be desired is time-consuming and costly. Anncestry.com doesn't have all the records scanned, of course. But what is available is amazing. Everything can be seen, from the signature, or mark of the bride and groom, to the names of the witnesses, and the condition of the prospective pair (spinster, bachelor, widow, or widower). This is exactly the kind of document that is invaluable to the researcher, and kudos to ancestry.com for putting them on their website.
I know that famillysearch.com and Fold3 are also doing a great job of scanning records. It is a delight to peruse them, and the information is amazing. The more that are scanned, the more families we can put together, and the we will have access to our family stories.

Family History in Haiti

2012-01-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

This is a special niche, and will only be of interest to those whose ancestors lived in, or passed through Haiti. Remember the slave uprising, and the plantations of yore. For those people with any history of ancestry there, this is an excellent website, based on documentation from many sources. It is a one-stop place to acquire very good information, with details on the sources. This is really the best place on the web to see family trees for former residents of Haiti, including those with French ancestry. It is called Genealogie d'Haiti et de Saint-Domingue, and is hosted on rootsweb. Truly a great find, and a boon to those who need those names. Enjoy!
Image from London Times: http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/173971-blame-it-france

South Carolina searching

2011-12-16T20:50:00.000-08:00

Have I written about South Carolina research?
I know, I am usually extolling the amazing records for the northeastern states, or sometimes the location of their transplanted descendants, California.

Well. I am also enthusiastic about records for the southern states, especially since history has not always preserved those records very well.

One site that is beyond compare is South Carolina Department of Archives and History. The searchable database is not easy to find, even when you find the main website. So I am giving you the direct url to the part that you need :link

Once into the database, enter your search terms, usually by last name, and choose "or" not "and" for the counterpart, so that you will actually see some results. The results are indexes of archived material, with names that tell many stories (lists on slave transfers, on land deals, and so on). The great finds are the "online images available" results. One click and you see a scan of an original plat map, with boundaries, names, original longhand.

From before 1700 on--and as long as you like history, you don't even need to find someone in your family tree to get a kick out of the excellent documents. And if you are looking in South Carolina for someone from the distant past, this is a site to put in your radar.
Image source: surveyhistory.org

How is FTDNA Family Finder doing these days?

2011-11-25T21:32:00.000-08:00

Family Finder at FTDNA is doing very well lately. Most customers have many matches, and can get at least some sense of their family history. Customers correspond with their matches who help to narrow down who might be those elusive ancestors in the family tree, or at least where they might they have come from, and so on. It is not yet easy to find a new ancestor, but it is clear that as the matches increase (more customers) that those family trees will become easier to define.
And the FTDNA forums always have good posts, with up-to-date information and discussions about all of the aspects of finding matches, communicating with matches, and making sense of the genetics behind it all.

Abstracts of wills don't tell the whole story

2011-11-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

Will abstracts are great, but the material is incomplete. Sometimes inferences are made by researchers that cause all sorts of complicated confusion on family trees online.
I find the will of Lucas Teeple to be a good example.

Just one of the problems in putting together the Teeple/Vosseller connection of Somerset, New Jersey, has been the confusion caused by misinterpreting the will abstract.
The abstract indicates that "Peggy" is a daughter. But somehow she is identified by researchers as the wife, so that she has two names, Mary and Peggy. The abstract must have appeared very misleading. She is actually a granddaughter of Lucas.
Sometimes we can't get hold of the wording of a will, and thus we have to rely on an abstract. But the will transcription, or even better, the will scanned, is always the best option.
Even with the will transcription, I have found two versions. One has Lucas giving guns to his grandsons, and the other has him giving guns and animals to his grandsons.

The abstract:
Lucas Teeple, of Bridgewater, whose will, dated 20 Aug 1764 (codicil, 16 Nov 1773), prob. 26 Jan 1774, names wife Mary and ch.:
      I John and his son, Luke
     II Christopher and his eldest son, Luke
     III Peter and his son, Luke
     IV Ursula, m. John Appleman
      V Peggy and her sons. Sons-in-law John Meyer and Jacob Fusler, and the latter's son, Luke

The will itself, as transcribed:

New Jersey Calendar of Wills, 1771-1780
New Jersey Archives, First Series, Vol 34, 1931

p. 144 (from Lib. L, p. 85)
1764, Aug 20. Dieppel, Lucas, of Bridgewater Township, Somerset Co.; will of. The 120 acres of land where I live to be sold, and my wife to have 1/3 the amount and £100 more. Eldest son, John, the land where he lives that joins William Graham, and contains 50 acres. After my wife, Mary, has been paid, then the rest to be given to my sons, Christopher Teaple and Peter Teaple, and my son-in-laws, Jacob Fusler and John Meyer. Daughter, Ursula, wife of John Appleman, a silver tankard. Executors - son, Christopher Teaple and John Appleman. Witnesses - Andrew Leake, Daniel Castner, Sidney Berry.

1773, Nov 16. Codicil. My wife, Mary may live on the place, and my son's daughter, Peggy, who lives with us, to have a good outset when 18. My son, Christopher's eldest son, Luke, to have my gun. My son, Peter's son, Luke, a gun, and my son John's son, Luke, £3. My son-in-law Jacob Fusler's son, Luke, £3. Witnesses - Daniel Castner, Jacob Castner, Philip King. Proved Jan. 26, 1774.

1774, Jan 19. Inventory, made by John Haas and Daniel Castner. Bond due from John Teeple, Jacob Lang and George Teeple for £70

Journal articles online for Keuka Lake/Crooked Lake

2011-11-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

A great find for the Finger Lakes researcher:
If you have an interest in the Keuka Lake/ Crooked Lake region of New York, there is an excellent resource for the history of the area and of specific individuals who lived there. It is called The Crooked Lake Review. There are also articles about the Seneca Indians, and cultural matters such as the introduction of Christianity. I found a scanned diary for a settler in the area, and many other fascinating works. The authors know how to write, and have done their research.
While many historical organizations ask for fees for articles, and do not put the articles online, this organization has put all the articles online for free. Just click on a date and see what was published. Or search for any term in the search box.
Article title examples include: "Counterfeiting: a Rochester Way to Wealth," "The Pioneer Settler upon the Holland Purchase, and his Progress," "Welcome to Iroquoia: A Review of the Literature," "St. George, the Serpent, and the Seneca Indians."
http://www.crookedlakereview.com/
Image from: gowaterfalling.com

When jumping over the pond, look to rootschat!

2011-11-11T21:22:00.000-08:00

Rootschat is an amazing website for searching for ancestors in the United Kingdom. The site is extremely well organized, and searches are very easily done. You can look in an area, or by surname. Beyond that, it is a very convivial place to exchange information. Researchers help each other with a very high level of expertise. I have had some excellent help in breaking through brick walls. And even beyond that, there is an element of camaraderie. When you register, you get a simple profile, and if you take a look at the posts, you will find people helping people and having fun doing that. If you are going to research any ancestor in the UK, and you can't find all that you need, this is a site to be sure to check in to. It is free.
Image: gohrw.com

HIR search

2011-11-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

A very simple website for comparing autosomal DNA results against those of many other individuals is Leon Kull's HIRsearch. You submit your data from the testing company, and you are welcome to use a pseudonym. You can compare your results on any chromosome or you can see overall the names of your best matches, and to what degree there is a match.
Strangely, the website seems to be falling off of the general radar for search engines, yet can still be accessed through links on other websites.

See http://hirs.snpology.com/

Update December 2011: HirSearch is once again easily found with search engines. Thank goodness!

Parents for Willard Simeon Cole, Syracuse, Onondaga, NewYork

2011-11-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

I have seen a few family trees with the information for Willard Simeon Cole of Syracuse, New
York. I found it difficult to make the suggested parents fit, and then found out why. His parents are actually Oscar Cole, son of Simeon, and Aurelia Wood. The marriage record for Willard makes all of the information very clear. Census records validate the finding.
The more information, the better, and in this case, it is fact versus misconception.
Now if anyone can help me find out more about Aurelia Wood, that would be great...

Jacob Jennings Brown and his adopted children

2011-10-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

Jacob Jennings Brown was appointed commanding General of the U. S. Army in 1821, following his successful leadership in the War of 1812. He was also founder of the town of Brownville, Jefferson County, New York.

What is less publicized about him is that he and his wife, Pamelia Williams Brown, who had many children of their own, became adoptive parents of at least two children whose parents were close friends of his. In both cases of adoption the natural parents had died as young parents, and had left their young children orphaned.

One of these children is Mahala Bellows, who married William Dillin. Another is William Waffle, born 1787 and wife of Mary Baxter. Both of these adopted children later named one of their own daughters Pamelia, after their adoptive mother.

I wonder how many more there may be?

Orleans, Vermont resources

2011-10-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

Orleans, Vermont is one of those genealogical watersheds. It is a place Rhode Islander and Bay Staters passed through, and you can find a lot of significant colonial names there in that late 1700 and early 1800 period.

There is a useful website, kind of out of the way (previous links dropped it), that has very nice cemetery transcriptions and the like for that area. It is called, interestingly, North East Kingdom Genealogy of Vermont. Although they encourage visitors to subscribe for a low fee, browsing is indeed free, and browsing will get you access to all the names in the census and cemetery transcription data. I have a feeling the amount of information in the cemetery transcriptions could break down a few brick walls in some family trees.

Image from rootsweb

What is gedmatch and what can it do for me?

2011-10-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

Gedmatch is an excellent website which can be useful to anyone researching a family tree. There are many possibilities.

If you have had your autosomal DNA tested there are lots of fun things to do.

But, even if you have never had your DNA tested, you can still use one section of Gedmatch. That is the gedcom matching section. You just load up your gedcom (family tree), and if you don't have one, it may be worthwhile to buy a program like Family Tree Maker because of its great versatility. If you don't want to do that, there are some free alternatives for creating gedcoms. Just check around online. Once you have done that, you load the gedcom up and it will automatically be compared to many other gedcoms to see where there might be names, dates, and places in common. Some of the results will seem silly--Jamie Johnson from Tennessee is matched against Jamie Johnson of Wales, and they have nothing in common. Other matches will prove more intriguing. You can just scroll though the results to see where something looks like a good match. If you find a distant cousin, you may find that there is a chance to get more information on your ancestors, either by contacting that person, or by looking at other information on the cousin's tree.

If you have had your DNA tested, you have many, many more options at Gedmatch. One of the most straightforward applications is the chromosome browser: load up your match results from your testing company and see where bars of matching segments correspond and overlap. Also excellent is the triangulation utility: if three or more people have one match in common, the common match shows up and you see the others who match that individual. You might find that there are at least a few of those matches who match you, or who could match you. Or you can at least see what geography might be involved.
Then there is the utility for cross-company comparisons--see what matches you might have from the company you did not test with, and the excellent chromosome painting, which is something that used to cost quite a bit of cash at many of the testing companies. Now you can see it for free.

And, as I have mentioned in earlier posts, there is the very excellent sister site which takes everything to a higher level in the specific context of group comparisons. The link to the sister site can be found at gedmatch.com.

Massachusetts Witch Trials: draw your own conclusions

2011-10-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

Did you know that you can look at Massachusetts Court records of the Salem witch trials? The transcribed records are available through the Salem Witch Trials and Documentary Archive Transcription Project at
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/salem/17docs.html.
The archive site also has other court records, and if you have any ancestors from Salem, you may find their names there as judges or as complainants, or defendants or even as witnesses. Another site with excellent transcriptions is:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM. Read the actual petitions of accused "witches." I put that in quotes because there were no witches in Salem, just victims of bad behavior by their neighbors and countrymen.
I find the witch trials fascinating, and have pored over them to learn more about the time and events in Salem.
Want to read the arrest warrant for John Alden? The death warrant for Bridget Bishop?
It is all there, and you can read the words as they were recorded.
In my opinion, the court records always provide a great view into society and motives.
Image taken from Famous American Trials:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM

Francis De Pau and the slave trade

2011-10-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

Francis De Pau,born 1773 in Bayonne, France, is well known in Northern New York for his financial successes,his shipping line, and his marriage to Sylvie de Grasse. There was a ship named after him, and a town in Jefferson County, New York, as well (Depauville). He lived in Trinidad, New York, and South Carolina, and married the daughter of Count DeGrasse in New Jersey.

In hoping to find more information about him and his family, I used many forms of his name and places he had lived in search engines, and then built on the information that popped up. I found that he had sold a slave as the administrator of an estate, so I then checked his name in connection to the slave trade.

Although not much appeared, what did appear was quite informative, and it came from an unlikely website (one reason I advise diligent searching). Some papers he wrote are up for sale for quite a bit of cash at an auction site, believe it or not. Sometimes these obscure marketplaces are indeed where we can find the best authentic information. The papers are written to a captain of a ship, and are very revealing about the degree to which De Pau was a corrupt slave dealer. He reveals his tactics for taking over a ship and acquiring slaves, and describes the number of slaves to obtain and what their height may be.

His family was very interesting, and has inspired stories of intrigue and romance, but I had never heard of this side of him before.

But, as always, back to the original documents for the best information. He reveals in his own hand what kind of businessman he was, and now those papers are, ironically, worth quite a bit of money--tens of thousands.

I found scanned images of his papers and long descriptions of them at the website "Goldberg Coins and Collectibles."

The image of the ship Francis DePau is taken from antique-images.de

Bucks County, PA resources

2011-10-07T22:10:00.000-07:00

There are many excellent resources for Bucks County, PA. Somehow it seems that the original settlers had great success in establishing large families with many descendants.

There are many Quaker ancestors who lived there, and there were immigrants from Scotland via Ireland, and from India, Holland, Germany, and Sweden as well, way, way back in time.

The PA GenWeb Archives for Bucks County is one of the best of all the GenWeb archives, with excellent abstracts of wills , which are well-indexed. I do enjoy the fact that they never edited "dec'd", which became "Decembered" (never edited to the more appropriate "deceased."). It is a bit of entertainment along the way. The abstracts themselves are excellent. They will really help you link your family connections together.
The will abstracts at the Bucks County Genweb Archives cover time periods from the early 1700's to the early 1800's.
A few additional resources for later years can be found on google books, but not all pages will be shown online.

There are also excellent biographies, area descriptions, and the like online for Bucks and Philadelphia counties.

George Williams Brown, a prolific writer from the area, has written a number of books, Many can be found digitized online.

Just takes some looking, but a lot of what you may be looking for in Bucks County is digitized.

New way to order microfilms at LDS Family History centers

2011-10-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

Familysearch.org, which is updating its records and its accessibilty at a breakneck speed (which I have to applaud) has recently changed procedures for ordering microfilms to be viewed at its centers. Instead of sending checks by mail, or walking into a Family History Center to fill out order forms, everything is now done on line. Go to Familysearch.org/films and you will find that you need to set up an account (quick and easily done) and then you can go ahead and order your microfilms online. As I was advised, it is very important to designate the family history center at which you wish to view the films. Otherwise, a center is chosen for you, and as was pointed out to me, it might be one that is open one day a week by appointment. So just do a little planning, a little clicking, and you have your order in and your hopes up for good results when you get to see the films!

http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/Microfilm

Civil War Lookalikes on Ebay and other websites

2011-09-30T22:21:00.000-07:00

You can see it for yourself at the daily beast:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/10/04/celebritiy-civil-war-look-a-likes-photos.html
Comparing past and present, there is a new fascination for looking for similarities between people in civil war era photos, probably mostly cabinet portrait photos, and people well-known in the present time.Similarities in facial appearance have been noticed between John Travolta and a civil war era man, and between Nicholas Cage and another civil war era individual. The attention that was drawn to the photos had an effect on raising the prices on the old photos. Who does your civil war ancestor look like?

In case you haven't been checking out Ebay for cabinet photos and old Bibles (often described in enough detail to add info to your family tree), it might be time to give it a glance.

In any case, what a great way to collapse time,

Caring about our ancestors

2011-09-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

We care about our ancestors, and we feel attached to them. Well, we are, genetically, and through whatever they have managed to pass down in terms of outlook and philosophy and tradition. But why do we care about the family members who led less than exemplary lives?

Perhaps it is the same phenomenon as we find in our own families--we are attached. Whatever the story is, whatever the path is, that person is ours.

As a friend of mine once said, I love my ancestors as I love my children they belong to me.

Revolutionary War Pension applications and where to find them

2011-09-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

Where do you find those Revolutionary War Pension applications and what do they hold? They are great sources of information, often providing details of the residences of the applicant, names of members of the family, and the applicant's memories of service. It can be a genealogical gold mine. Most applications appeared in the 1830's, after an act to relieve the financial burdens of Revolutionary Patriots was passed. Some applications are from family members, because the soldier has already passed away. Others are in the words and writing of the patriot himself.
I have found that the American Ancestors website (also known as NEHGS) has summaries of these applications, including indexes of names for each application. That is very appealing, but of course it makes the reader want to see the entire application. The reader wonders, why was so and so mentioned? Let's see it and read it! The indexed applications at American Ancestors are provided by Fold3. The indexes will allow readers to see the pension applications in their entirety for a subscription fee. But it turns out that ancestry.com has many of these pensions scanned as well.
Consequence? For those who have ancestry.com subscriptions, the Fold3 may not be necessary for this particular type of genealogy resource.
It is always uselful to check here and there to see if you can get access to information that you had expected to pay for.
Other great alternatives include free census information available from The USGenWeb Census Project at us-census.org (http://www.us-census.org/), and vital records that are compiled by volunteers for the State GenWeb websites.

Gedmatch and the matches of matches...

2011-09-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

Now that more people are testing, there is less guesswork and more constructive logic involved in finding common ancestors with Family Finder or Relative Finder matches. When you can see matches for matches on Gedmatach, you can start plugging in possible ancestral names. All you have to do (well yes, it takes some time) is to build the family trees of each match, and see where convergences appear likely. Challenging, but in a fun, doable way. This is where Family Finder and Relative Finder have so much potential for success. They provide the matches, and online websites like Gedmatch.com provide forums for pushing info on those matches as far as possible. One by one, American ancestors will be found, named, and included in our trees.

War of 1812 Pension Requests

2011-09-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

Fold3, formerly called Footnote, has taken on the task of scanning War of 1812 Pension applications. It appears that it is a large project that has barely begun, but the quality of the records, and the information that can be gleaned from them is certainly valuable. I have looked at the indexing of the records and have read over some of the records. My ancestors don't show up yet, but I do look forward to reading about them when they do turn up. The records can be searched by name, and then are sorted by state, which is pretty helpful. The detailed information in the application is very nice to see, and since it has all been scanned, every bit of that detail is available, from the way the signatures were written to the notes here and there on the sides. The information is much more inclusive than the simple abstracts of payment information I have seen to date in free sites. It is offered free to the public so far, and is very timely, as we will soon be ready to recognize the 200th anniversary of that war.
Image source: tao.221.wordpress,.com

What Gedmatch.com offers, and now what sister site Ancestor-Projects.com has available

2011-09-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.gedmatch.com/

Gedmatch.com has a lot to offer and it can only get better as time goes on. What is it useful for? It is useful for getting more out of the autosomal DNA results(RF and FF) that you get from FTDNA or 23andme.

People who have tested can sometimes make contact with potential relatives through the company they test with to try to find the common ancestor. But matches don't always respond to requests, and they don't always post a gedcom. By using the utilities on gedmatch.com, you can at least see, (through the triangulation utility), who (of those who upload data to )Gedmatch.com your matches match. Of course they will match many individuals who have nothing to do with you. But you may be able to work with the names that are there to narrow down geography, or even to find matches in common. For example I might see that my match Mary Jones, who doesn't respond to my email requests, matches five people with ancestry that I can at least identify (from their posted gedcoms or from their posts on genealogy forums) as from the southern States.

The triangulation utility is only one of the many options on gedmatch. You can also use the chromosome browser to compare where you match with all of your matches on each chromosome. This can point to common ancestry for some of the matches.

The chromosome painting is an amazing feature. You can see the genetic ancestry as matched with populations for each chromosome. If you find you have unusual matches on 17, for example, you may see on the chromosome painting, that that particular chromosome matches a population that is quite different from the majority of your projected ancestry.

Another utility at gedmatch.com is the gedcom comparison. You can upload a gedcom, which requires no genetic testing whatsoever, and have the names and dates compared to those of other gedcoms.

And now there is a sister site: Ancestor-Projects.comYou can sign up for a project and load up your results to see how they compare to others looking for commonalities. Projects include Lost Colony/Melungeon. Roma/Gypsy, Quaker, and Ashkenazi, all very interesting areas of research.

These are only some of the great features at gedcom.com and its sister site.

I have no business affiliation with the website. As a researcher, I think it is just great.

The reliable or unreliable narrator of family history

2011-09-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

Researching family history is highly involved with use and understanding of narrative discourse. We often discuss the reliability or unreliabilility of the narratives (stories, biographies, notes, etc.) that we read as we conduct our research.

I am remindied of Seymour Chatman's communication model, which describes the relationship between narrator and narratee (who is actually a part of the "story" in a sense, and beyond.to the implied reader (intended but not necessarily personally known by the teller) and the real reader, as addressed by the real author and the implied author. Without getting into the intricacies of the model, and without trying to aim for perfect application of the concepts, I would like to consider the interesting aspect of reliabilty in the telling of stories.
I like to be very open-minded about clues, because I know that I will double-check every lead that I find. I can reject anything later, but I'd like to have a good look at it first. And I enjoy finding illogical stories almost as much as I enjoy putting a family tree together step by step, logically.

I recently came across a public family tree online that had some information that looked helpful. I hadn't seen anyone else who had that connection. My first clue that I might be dealing with an unreliable narrator came when I saw that the Revolutionary War service papers were from Virginia, and attached to a man from New England. It wasn't time to reject the information, but time to be a little more cautious. I then saw that the son was born several years after the father died. Then I knew that the tree owner was of the habit of attaching information to a name, without verifying that the information or checking to see if there might be other men of the same name. So I knew that this was an unreliable narrator, as created by the real author of the tree, and that the stories told would not be helpful to me. The owner of this family tree was very eager to prove that the ancestor had served in the war, and was probably a little too eager to do so, missing some truth in the process of writing the tale.

There are many reasons that we have unreliable narrators to inform us about family history. Some are working hard, but are not checking their information, some are attached to what they hope will be the truth. Some are working with good information that seems logical, but it may not be the best information. I think of all of genealogical research as the result of the best work that has been done at the moment, and any of it may be adjusted, improved, or reversed with better information.

There can be unreliable narrators at any time, and the stories can be told and retold. The burden is on the reader to decide whether to enjoy the story for what it seems to be, or to question the narration and double-check the details of the content.