On this day, 26 September 1820, the legendary Daniel Boone said “I’m going now. My time has come.” and died. If modern publicity is to be believed, Daniel is buried in two places: Marthasville, Missouri, and Frankfort, Kentucky.  He is believed to have been buried the first time near the home of his daughter Jemima (Boone) Callaway on Tuque Creek, Missouri, but his grave was not marked for ten years or more. Rumor now has it that when Daniel’s remains were subsequently relocated to Kentucky, the wrong remains were moved because the headstone was placed over the wrong grave in the 1830’s.

Who is a modern genealogist to believe, and what on earth should we enter in our database as the burial location?

There are currently 3,900 public family trees on Ancestry.com alone whose owners claim Daniel as a relative, plus nearly 1,000 more private trees showing him to be the son of Squire Boone and Sarah Morgan.  Most claim Daniel was born 22 October 1734. Some say he was born in England, but most agree he came from Exeter (but possibly Reading, Oley, or New Britain), Berks County, Pennsylvania.

The famous Daniel’s story, even in death, demonstrates the plight of the modern genealogist in researching our early ancestors. As our young nation grew, families moved westward – but sometimes came back east. Writing tools were scarce on the frontier, and literacy often lacking. Even for the famous heroes such as Daniel Boone, headstones were extremely rare. More often our ancestors found their final resting place on a quiet corner of their own land than in a public cemetery.

As the nearly 5,000 online pedigree charts for Daniel Boone show, compiled family histories tend to disagree about the vital events of our ancestors, and sources are rarely cited. Discovering the truth is often extremely time consuming, because it is often the case that literally hundreds of conflicting sources must be consulted. Even then, in the end, we may still not come up with the “right” answer.

Like our ancestors’ lives, though our research journey may be long, arduous, dry, and sometimes downright boring, the thrill of discovery makes it all worthwhile. Daniel, on the anniversary of your death we salute you wherever you really are. May we find the truth some day.