Family Story vs the Facts

by Donna Swagerty Shreve

The original story was told to me in 1997 by my paternal grandmother’s youngest sister Lucy. She had been told the story by Abraham Lincoln Aldrich, her father. He did not like his name and went by his initials mostly. Later I heard this story from several other relatives such as Everett Aldrich who was the only son of Abe’s only surviving son Clarence. Abe was born in January of 1864 and was unnamed until after the presidential election. This part of the story remained constant throughout the various retelling of the story from several relatives.

The original story had Harris, Abe’s father, heading out to the Civil War with a pregnant wife back home in Iowa. He left instructions with his wife to name the child, if it was a boy, after the winner of the 1864 presidential election, if it was Abraham Lincoln. The story continues with Harris never returning from the Civil War and leaving behind a widow and several children. Many people in the family had heard this story and retold it over the years.

I started doing genealogy and found many more resources online. As I researched the Aldrich family I noticed certain facts that did not fit with the family story. First of all, Harris Aldrich would have been age 50 in 1864. That got me very suspicious and I started doing more research on Harris Aldrich. By chance a relative in Iowa sent me a picture of Harris Aldrich’s headstone that is in Humboldt County. He died in Iowa in 1880. Then I found a first marriage for Harris to a wife that died young but left a son named Myron Aldrich. Myron served in the Civil War and saw a lot of action. He returned home and lived to old age. Maybe that is where the Civil War story came from. I also found additional children on the next census so Harris did not leave. 

With more research, I discovered other times facts got in the way of family stories on the Aldrich side. Great Aunt Lucy asked her father Abe on many occasions about her relatives. Lucy was born in Iowa but moved with the family to California when she was only four. Abe did not want to talk about relatives. Lucy had asked about any cousins. His response was if she did have any she would not want to know them. This reply remains a mystery to me as Abe was well loved and very generous with his smile and good will. There were many cousins and they were mainly in Iowa. There was a cousin Joe that lived with this family and Lucy adored him but Joe was sent home after an unfortunate escapade on his part.

As I discovered new information, I would share it with Great Aunt Lucy. She was good natured and accepted my research but did say she preferred the family stories more. Family stories are not always true but they usually contained some facts and clues to finding other facts.

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5/2/2025

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