One Last Post on the Theme of Genealogical Frustration

I think I've been doing these posts as a way to procrastinate on a longer post I have in mind on religion and adoption.

My mother's family is from West Virginia, although they left the state when my mother was very small. The only time I've ever been to the home state was for a family reunion over the weekend held in honor of my recently deceased grandfather. I was a teenager at the time. I'd met several of my relatives before, so I didn't feel like I was among strangers.

My great-aunt told me some family stories at the reunion. She said with great pride that our family could trace ancestry from General Robert E. Lee, but the records were burned in a house fire in the 1930s, so there isn't any proof. So this was why all my male relatives had "Lee" somewhere in their name! I was quite impressed at this possible connection to such a famous historical figure. When I later asked my mother about it, she laughed and rolled her eyes. She told me that half the population of West Virginia has Lee in their name, but of course their records vanished in (pick one) a house fire/flood/earthquake/sinkhole/meteor strike.