Dr. James Beall (Bell) is clearly disproven and now has that status on WikiTree. And how about his ancestors? He has Cubies who appear only on Genie or Ancestry.com. He has Calverts who appear only on Genie or Find-a-Grave, all without further citation. Not good enough sourcing to justify creating a profile in the first place, but not bad enough to justify removing them.
"Pure" genealogy would focus only on the truth of their existence. If you can't prove them, dismiss them. My own curiosity leads to "forensic genealogy" (does the term already exist?) where I wonder how these ancestors came to be. Are they real people but just without useful sources? Are they fake people created by error? Or were they deliberately created because someone wanted a nice genealogy. Worst of all, were they created for profit by someone who abused the trust of those who paid for research?
In the towns associated with the Cubies, there were indeed people named Cubie a couple of hundred years later. How one of them hooked up with a Calvert from Yorkshire is not explained. Dr. James Bell's Calvert ancestors are similarly found only in Genie and Fina-a-Grave until they latch on to documented Calverts of the family that founded Maryland. And there you have it: Ninian Beall, Scottish immigrant to Maryland, now is a cousin of the Calverts who governed Maryland. Convenient! But true?
This is speculation, of course. But it seems like there is a story here, not the story of the ancestors themselves, but the story of someone who WANTED ancestors, and made them up. When did these accounts of Ninian Beall's Scottish ancestors and Calvert cousins first show up? Who was involved? If anyone has clues, it would make a fascinating story. Forensic genealogy!
