Rev Abbot Hancock: Original Biography

©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

Lately, I've been researching one of the collateral Kavanaugh's from my family tree, specifically Charles Kavanaugh Jr., husband of Frances Powell. I've been sifting through his records in multiple states and counties and sorting through his children. I've been trying to amass as many primary documents as possible. I thought I had something promising when I came across this biography of Rev. Abbot Hancock on his Family Search page. It reads like it was copied from an early county history, but is it has no source information. What seems especially promising is the information that Rev. Hancock "married Miss Lucynthia Kavanaugh, daughter of Dr. Charles Kavanaugh and his wife Frances (Powell) Kavanaugh." That would seem to prove that Charles Kavanaugh was a "Dr." What is suspect about this is that Frances's maiden name is in parenthesis, a convention that 19th-century country histories usually did not use.

Family Search
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So, I pressed on to see what else I could find along these lines, and I investigated Rev. Abbott Hancock's Findagrave memorial.

Findagrave Memorial
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And two biographies are identical right down to the title in all caps: REVEREND ABBOTT HANCOCK. Clearly, they originated from elsewhere, but where?

I continued to probe and found the original in The History of Carroll County, Missouri published in 1881. It's worth noting that the author of the original biography knew Rev. Abbot Hancock.

History of Carroll County, Missouri, 1881

There are some notable differences between the original and the copies of it on Family Search and Findagrave. First, the spelling of Rev. Abbot Hancock's name is different. The information that Lucinthia Kavanaugh was the daughter of Dr. Charles Kavnaugh and Frances Powell is absent. Lucinthia's name is spelled differently. The original was about two sentences longer and included the writer's impression that Abbot Hancock was born in about 1795 or 1796.

Again, it is important to seek out the original source. In this instance, the original source does not confirm that Lucinthia's parents were Dr. Charles Kavanaugh and Frances Powell. Since this was written by one who knew Abbot Hancock, being able to confirm this would have been helpful.

I am not saying that Lucinthia Kavanaugh was not the daughter of Charles Kavanaugh and Frances Powell. Since there are other marriages between Hancocks and Kavanaughs, it seems likely that she is, but this biography cannot be used to document it. This is also another example of people who alter the transcript of original sources to suit their own narrative. That is is always the danger of transcripts. It seems likely that one of the contributors, to either Family Search or Findagrave, altered the original, and the other contributor unknowingly copied and pasted it to the other site. It's also possible that both contributors copied and pasted it from elsewhere. As researchers, we have a responsibility not just to citing sources, but to refrain from altering them to suit our own purposes.