I'm starting the public discussion from this profile -- this is Thomas Wheler, who was knighted at the Battle of Stoke in 1487.
I don't have access to the list of the men knighted at that battle, but it's referenced in sources that seem reliable. So let us agree that he actually existed.
Whether or not he was actually the father of the children attached to him is a different issue -- but I let that go because a much bigger problem is going on.
The Wheeler line appears on many many many various web trees, and on Find-a-Grave, and has been repeated on Geni.
And it is full of horrible and somewhat hilarious lies.
I'm going to unmaster and disconnect the obviously wrong profiles -- there are a host of profiles in the Anglo-Saxon era with names that couldn't possibly exist till after 1600, for instance, and various women throughout the middle ages with names that couldn't exist. Patty Sue Milk is my favorite. No medieval names like that. None. But pretty funny, really. Or maybe you have to be a medievalist to appreciate it....we medievalists are sort of odd like that.
anyway.
So this is a heads up -- I am going to clean the tree of impossibilities -- but also a call to users interested in the Wheeler lines -- please share REAL sources. If it's in the web trees, it is not useful. Find-a-Grave, nope, not for this.
Once the deadwood is out, we can start seeing what is really true, or at the very least, possible.
This guy is good, and sourced Henry Wheeler, of Cranfield
The parents are possibly OK although they hadn't been promoted to knighthood except by FindAGrave.
Yes, I'd figured him out. I've cut at the place where it makes sense to me, and added in NN and notes.
I'll keep the fictional tree top mastered, and add notes in to all the profiles.
It's an REALLY time consuming hoax, and it's all over the net, and in people's blogs and web pages -- it's really ubiquitous.
I tend to add to the project "spurious pedigrees.". Is it a hoax, a deliberate fraud, wishful thinking, mistake?
For instance, the name Patty Ann Milk I would guess was a pedigree submitter to the IGI (LDS database) getting into the wrong field from the magic of computerization. :).
I ran into something similar with fictional medieval Churchill pedigrees. It got even better, the name of the birth month (May) somehow became the wife's name. And the core problem was no one bothered to submit the death dates of the children to the IGI files ...
I don't think it was non-deliberate. This involves generation after generation of hilarious names that can't be true, but are sort of related. They have been invented.
I searched for them -- not showing up. Patty Sue Milk. Nowhere except web trees and find-a-grave.
I put in curator's notes, and will add the line to the spurious pedigrees.
In google: (sadly, top hit)
Patty Sue Welere (Milk) (1346 - 1400) - Genealogy - Geni
Patty Sue Welere, {Fictional} Geni
Feb 1, 2015 - Genealogy for Patty Sue Welere (Milk) (1346 - 1400) family tree on Geni, with over 150 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives.
----
Chronicles of a Nation: Founding Fathers, Families, and Patriots
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0967923026
Joan Wheeler LaGrone - 2015 - ‎History
He married Patty Sue Milk, who was born in 1346. Castlemilk in Scotland was the well know home of Sir William Stewart in 1398. There may or may not be a ...
-----
so -- she migrated over from Castlemilk in Scotland .... Patty Sue being a well known name in 1346. :)
It's in print!
from https://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Nation-Founding-Families-Patriots...
The author, Joan Wheeler-LaGrone, is also connected to all of these different families and going back to 1639 when the Wheeler families came from Odell, England and settling in Concord, Massachusetts and their geneology to form this enjoyable rendition of American History.
Anne Brannen, when Patty Sue shows up in discussions, links etc she shows as just Patty Sue Milk - the fictional does not show.
It also does not show in Ancestor and Descendant lists.
Is it possible to change her name so that it shows the {Fictional}?
Anne, your statement about Sir John Welere born 1348 who married Patty Sue Milk, born 1398 as being a "joke - hoax" is incorrect. This fact is verified by several sources. I resent your statement and suggest you read the information in my book "Chronicles of a Nation." You will discover my mention of Castlemilk, home of Sir William Stewart in 1398, simple made the statement that there may or may not be a connection to Patty Sue, but that in that era, the name often reflected the resident. Please make this correction ASAP and remove your statment.. Thank You. Joan Wheeler LaGrone
If there is evidence that they existed, it will be showing up in charters, or wills, or land dispute documents, or church court cases, things like that.
The English hadn't at that time started the practice of writing all the births and deaths an marriages down in church record books. Alas.
There are also histories and heralds accounts; sometimes people show up there.
Oh, and churchwardens' accounts. Those are wonderful. Most of them that survive are from the early modern period, or perhaps late medieval, but there are some survivals from the Middle Ages. Quite enjoyable. And they often contain genealogical information. "Robert Smith, the son of William Smith of Royston, gave iij d for wax tapers for the burial." That sort of thing.
The problem, by the way, with Patty Sue Milk isn't really her last name. The name Patty wasn't in use till the 17th century -- a version, oddly enough, of Martha, through Matty.
Susana as a name was certainly in use by this time, but I have never seen Sue used this early.
That's the problem.
And then if you go back through the line, you see many more instances of people who could not have existed.
Elizabeth Ellen, when middle names weren't used.
Terry Lynn, in 1279; two names that didn't exist.
A long line of modern names.
George Hinge Wieler, in 995.
So all of these people who could not possibly have existed throw the whole line into question.
Gladly, gladly will I rehabilitate any people who can be shown to have existed.