Re: History of the Bye Family - A. E. Bye
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In reply to:
Re: History of the Bye Family - A. E. Bye
Darren McCathern 5/03/01
I don't mean to get into a disagreement with you, but every book I know of that cites the Bye alleged Royal lineage uses the Arthur Edwin Bye volume, whether it is Gary Boyd Roberts' _The Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants_ or Buck & Beard's _Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants_or Adam's _Living Descendants of Royal Blood_ or Schertzinger's _Colonial Americans of Royal and Noble Descent_. In fact, it is the only source used for this alleged descent (some cite the other sources, but it is all based on Bye's work). Roberts even adds the following: " A fully documented detailed monograph on the immediate ancestry of Mrs. Bye would be welcome."
I disagree with you about accepting someone's work based on the number of associations they belong to or titles they can put after their name. I have a lot of degrees and titles to throw around as well as two books published in the past month citing my work (including Robert's reprint of the above work). Does it make me any more or less reliable than anyone else? Of course not, bad genealogy is bad genealogy, no matter whose name is on it. I would add a caveat here in that those who are members of F. A. S. G. (Fellow of American Society of Genealogists) are the cream. There are only ever 50 of them and they are elected by their peers. (A member of this group was one of those who found Bye's working wanting and interested me in pursuing it).
I have not seen the work you cite, but if it predates Bye then he should have given credit for the "discovery." Thank you for mentioning this. I shall try to locate and evaluate it.
The only thing important to me is the truth. I'm sorry, but I sincerely believe that Dr. Bye has failed to make his case for his descents by failing to adequately document them. For me, it's as simple as that.
Best wishes to you too. I do not take your remarks personally and hope you don't take mine either. Lest you think I only pick on Dr. Bye, I have seen a recent book on the Stanley family that has even less documentation than Bye. The early generations are a horror! Good luck. :)
More Replies:
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Re: History of the Bye Family - A. E. Bye
Darren McCathern 6/15/01
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Re: History of the Bye Family - A. E. Bye
Edward Ray 6/18/01
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Re: History of the Bye Family - A. E. Bye
Darren McCathern 6/19/01
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Re: History of the Bye Family - A. E. Bye
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Re: History of the Bye Family - A. E. Bye