This page has been designed using two frames. The left hand frame (this one) contains the reasoning and the right hand one, the data. This is useful because it enables me to quote the data and comment on it, without causing any confusion as to what is data and what is comment!
In the Torrens families there exist two major genealogical books of good repute: one of these was published posthumously in 1920, by the author's wife. The second followed in 1923 and filled in a lot of the gaps in the first. The story of how Jared Sidney Torrances wrote the first as a result of a search for his Irish roots has been told elsewhere.
However, certain 'facts' in the second book seem to jar slightly. The more we learnt of the Irish genealogy, the less possible seemed some of these statements. Now My own father, Robert George Torrens acquired a sheaf of notes from Robert Grier Torrence, son of RMT who wrote the second book. Some of these notes are original letters concerning Jared's search. Some of them cast a light onto the state of genealogical research at the turn of the century.
Before Jared employed Kernohan in Ireland, he had been contacting some of the Irish families directly and he was also offered the services of an American genealogist of high stature. Jared did not accept this genealogist's work, but beat his own path to get original data. It is quite clear that Jared did not trust the work of this professional!
If Jared was correct, and if the genealogist's success, as reviewed from the correspondence at the time, was as successful as it seems, then Gustave Anjou was ripping off rich Americans with great success. If that is true, there must be many, many families whose early family history must now be under a deep shadow of suspicion. Truly Gustav Anjou must have known a lot about his subject, for convincing creations have to be based upon sufficient truth yo be credible, but the evidence we have shows that he was very good at this creative genealogy and, as long as his creations were adequate to earn his not inconsiderable fee, he was satisfied. The truth was clearly something of lesser importance.
Gustave Anjou may have been alone, but it must be suspected that, as he appears to have commanded great respect, he was simply a product of his time and that this fictional, imaginative approach was actually the norm. If so, then many early genealogies must be highly suspect.
Read on, and judge for yourself.
If you have read these letters, it is very clear than, much as Jared wanted to find his blood relationship to the other American Torrence lines, he wished to find the true connection. He clearly trusted Ridgeley's judgement that Anjou was not to be trusted.
So what sort of person was Anjou? Apart from Ridgeley's suspicions all we can go on are Anjou's letters. Of particular evidence is Mr Anjou's letterhead. The top of the letter consists of an arrangement of impressive-looking crests and insigniae. But down the left hand side of the letter is a long list of families he has 'done'. I had not properly looked at this list, until I started to transcribe it. This, with the other impressive' information from Anjou's letterhead is given as exhibit 7. The list of names has been put as a numbered list, but every one of these names appears in Anjou's credentials on his letter heading!
If Anjou really knew the genealogies of all 199 families even slightly, he was a man of not inconsiderable achievement. How long would it have taken, around 1900, to research 199 families? I believe this list alone puts his claims in the light of incredulity!
And look at his fees. How much has the US dollar increased in inflation over a century? Not as much as the Sterling pound, but say by a factor of 20. So $600 from each of 200 families would net him an income of $2.4 million in today's money. Not bad for a genealogist!
I find this to be pretty damming evidence of a grand rip-off. The genealogies he was selling were fictional, based on real life but spliced and interwoven to satisfy the purchasers.
Genealogy at that time clearly consisted of getting a 'professional' to do the work for you. There was clearly no way of checking the professional's work. I wonder how many other professional genealogical inventors there were. How many families have these inventions in their roots, now passed down, expanded and elaborated into folk myths.
This story may seem very negative: I seem to be damming all of the earlier genealogies. Surely this is not fair on the basis of one event? Yet I think a note of extreme caution is indeed justified: today many genealogists are more concerned about building a tree than they are about finding the truth. Creative genealogy surely still exists. The moral is: do not believe that your tree is necessarily true, because it's a tale that's been told for several generations. Creative genealogy, like any good vintage. becomes more believable as it matures. If you find that some of the old records just don't seem to be right, then they probably are not right! Just because the history seems old does not authenticate it! Maybe it's time to clear the ghosts out of your family attic?
After I wrote this, Linde Lunney did a search on the WWW for 'Anjou'. Two sites came up which are of interest:
Notice Anjou's letter (Letter 3) to Jared. He refers to Jared's enquiry of a mere 11 weeks earlier. Anjou can supply a tree. To me this indicates one of three possibilities:
Note the second paragraph of Letter 1 opposite. Ridgeley made a copy of the paper left by Anjou and in the author's (RJT) possession is a MS of that: this MS is on the reverse of letterhead headed 1210 Washington Building, Los Angeles, Cal, so was presumably transcribed by Jared. A GIF of it is available.
Now this tree shows that Anjou knew about Sgt Hugh, names his sons James, Albert, Hugh - but this Hugh is our own Hugh of Mayoughill, mentioned in the three American letters. He also knows of Robert. These 'facts' are similar to trees presented in other genealogies: so Anjou is already aware of much Torrens genealogy.
If seems inescapable that Anjou himself must have compiled some of this genealogy earlier in his career. It seems very likely therefore that the whole Sgt Hugh myth may have been originated by no less than Gustav Anjou himself!
This immediately throws into doubt almost any 'traditions' or 'family records' reported in 1938 by Robert M Torrens. It seems that he learnt of Anjou's original genealogy and reported it as established tradition: after all Anjou's letter heading shows he was working from 1888, 50 years before Robert M wrote the book!
Elsewhere I have presented what we know about Sgt Hugh and presented Linde Lunney's essay against Sgt Hugh. I find the case not only proven, but its origins explained! Now to unglue the myth and reassemble a true story!
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