Proving your lineage to others using an independent genealogy organization

[@mdaly724]

Even if you don't plan on applying for DAR, SAR, Mayflower Society, etc their forms are great to help guide research. Well, the forms, and the expected process and review. I think I mentioned my experience 'losing' a Mayflower connection before. I had a line that led to George Soule, a Mayflower passenger. Very exiting. So I decided to complete the Mayflower Society application form as an exercise. I was doing pretty well until I bumped into Elizabeth Matteson, my 5th gr-grandmother. I had a good record of her marriage to Theophilus Spencer (1732-1793) and his birth. Then my brain froze when I realized my notes said she was born in 1744 and that would make her 13-14 and him 24-25 when the Theophilus married *an* Elizabeth Matteson in 1757. Contrary to some stories, women in the 18th century tended to marry on average around 22 or 23. Not 13. And not to a 25 year old man. I actually said "yuck" loud enough to make my dogs jump. I bought the George Soule 'silver book' and went through all of the notes to find the 1744 Elizabeth married someone else and moved to Vermont. That was a proven line. So I don't have a Mayflower connection to George Soule. It was a little traumatic for a few days before I set out finding my Elizabeth. Buying the book was worth the money to verify my finding even though it was a negative finding. Many other researchers just accept the connection either because someone gave it to them or because it connects to the Mayflower. I have yet to convince one other person I'm right; not because they believe I might have found anything but because it has been accepted for so long. Following the lineage society forms and process made me look so much closer at that key connection. I suspect I have a Mayflower connection lurking in New England since I have so many arrivals during the great migration of the 1630s but it'll have to be another line that gets me there.