My possibly illegitimate maternal grgrgrgrandmother's family lines are a complete mystery.

Question

The oral history of several lines of my Clark family has the same story of a young woman from the socially prominent Calais Maine Pike family who was disowned when she married "beneath her station"  my grgrgrgrandfather, William D. Clark.  One theory is that she was either the baby of the Pike family's teenage daughter (who died around that time frame), or the widowed Pike matriarch and one of her late husband's business partners.  Either way, there is no paper trail for Elizabeth Jennie Pike, until she marries William D. Clark.  Some researchers believe that the sons of Hannah Sheppard Pike paid officials to loose or fabricate birth records, etc., in order to protect their family (and social) reputations.  What is the best way to record this in my Wikitree profile?  I have researched the Pike trees and the Sheppard/Rominger trees for my own interest.  I am also in contact with a descendant of the Calais Pike family who has taken a DNA test, and is willing to work with me to see if there might be a DNA connection between us.  She descends from a son of the Pike family.  I do have names, dates, etc for all people in this post if needed.

Comments

Clark-53010 and Pike-7859.

You could add the theory to Elizabeth's profile as a research note.  

DNA could be helpful.

P.S.  It looks like you're missing a couple sets of reference tags on William's profile.  I didn't add them because I wasn't quite sure what you intended.

---

You can add reference tags to William's profile.  I'm not sure if I have any intentions!   You can give me some hints.  Lea

---

OK.  :)  

I tried, but got a message that you're editing the profile.

---

I was trying to 'clean up" William D. Clark's profile to see if that would help.  Please let me know what I should do next.

Thank you, Lea

---

I see what you've done and think I understand why.  I have a few recommendations.  It would be easier to do a few edits and show you than to explain.  If you don't mind, I will do that and you can change it back if you don't like it.  Would that be OK?

---

Oh yes!  Please do!   Thanking you in advance - Lea

---

OK.  I'll do it now and report back here when I'm done.

Update:  You have a draft in progress.  Would you please resolve that first?

---

I am not able to find the draft in progress.  Where would I look for it?

---

Click on the edit button, and then the system should inform you that you've already got a draft going.  Then you can save it or discard it.

---

did that help?  I discarded it.

---

Yes, thank you.

---

OK, I'm done.  What I did was basically formatting and rearranging.  I added the standard headings as required (see this Help page).  I then created a biography and made the sources in-line to the extent I could identify them easily.  Other people might like to arrange things differently.  Some people create a "Residence" sub-heading and put all the census listings there.

Now, regarding substantive issues:  Your original question was about the wife's identity.  I see that she is linked to parents, and I don't know how that affects your theory.  If you want to add a research note, you can create the heading as described in the Help page I've linked to here.

The other issue I'll mention is the 1890 census listed in the Sources.  It appears to be a listing for a Civil War veteran.  Part of the record is smudged, and I know from experience that for any given name of a Civil War veteran, there is likely to be more than one man who had that name.  I suggest you try to learn more about your GGGF's war record, if any, and either add sources and a mention in the biography, or add a note to the 1890 census source listed explaining its uncertainty.

I hope I've been helpful, but if you don't like what I did, feel free to change it.  (I hope the PM doesn't mind either.  I should have checked before I started work, because I had assumed you were the PM!)

---

Thank you so much for doing this.  I am a newbie to Wikitree (surprise) ha, so this will certainly help me with other profiles.  As far as the original question  -- I started with my grgrgrandmother's her death certificate information and began to research backwards, using the names of her parents, then finding sources supporting them and linking them to her.  With the help of other wiki members, I have found what I believe to be her real story.  Thank you to everyone who responded to this question, and for all the offers of help.  It is greatly appreciated!  Lea

---

You're welcome!