At the end of the movie, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence," a group of newspapermen are mulling an opportunity to debunk a myth, a story that has been passed down the years. One reporter finally said, "There should be no story. When the legend is greater than the truth, print the legend."

Growing up, I heard all kinds of family stories. When I started working on my family histories as an adult of thirty-seven years of age, I was struck by how many of these stories were not true, or at least wildly exaggerated. I was told of famous relatives, such as John Wesley Hardin, the infamous Texas gunfighter. I was told we were related to Jesse and Frank James, of the James Gang in Missouri. I also heard all kinds of other stories, that even when true, turned out to be more mundane than they eventually became after decades of oral tradition.

It actually turned out that I am related to John Wesley Hardin. My great great great great grandfather, Benjamin Hardin and John Wesley Hardin's father, John Gibson Hardin, were brothers. Thus I am a first cousin, six times removed from the infamous outlaw. Let's just look at John Wesley Hardin. What is true and what is legendary about the man is almost impossible to figure out. He was a living legend, a feared and often admired outlaw in Texas and the south after the Civil War. He knew he was a living legend, knew he was a celebrity in his time. He deliberately played up a great deal of the legendary stories that were circulating about himself. Thus the reality of who John Wesley Hardin really was inside and the things he did or things he claimed to do, are now the provenance of modern psychologists, historians, criminologists and other people who have made a buck off of an admittedly troubled man.

The larger issue for me personally, being a member of the Hardin family, is that the legend and life of John Wesley Hardin has completely obscured the accomplishments of other family members. This includes family that lived before him, after him and during the same time that he lived. Contrary to popular belief, John Wesley Hardin was the exception in his family and in society in general. Most Hardin family members were decent people, who did not resort to violence, who were active participants and leaders in their communities. Mention the name of Hardin, and most Texans and Americans will say, "Oh, John Wesley Hardin". How many people know of our ancestor, Colonel Joseph Hardin of the Continental Army? This honorable man, who led men in battle to secure the independence of the American colonies. This man, who was rewarded with a land grant by Congress for his honorable service in what is now the State of Tennessee and that Hardin County, Tennessee is named after him.

The overall point I am trying to make is this. The lives of the famous or infamous, are exceptions to the rule. Most people lived decent, hard working lives and contributed to the society in general. I think it is a natural human predilection to spin tall tales, to embellish stories as they are told and retold down through the generations. Often times, it is nothing deliberate, things just get mixed up as they are passed from one generation to another orally. Sometimes, people want desperately to connect to the famous or infamous, especially in doing genealogy. There is a good saying used by historians and archaeologists, "Histories lie, artifacts don't". When one can validate histories with actual artifacts (official records count here), you can be reasonably sure the core of the history is based in some facts. The trick is in sorting the facts from the legends.

Unfortunately, we all have family stories that are now encrusted with myths and legends. It was also better to tell the legend than the facts, it just made better stories. We humans are story telling creatures, it is a part of our nature, sometimes fact gets mixed up with fiction and this only makes the task of exploration more fun and sometimes frustrating for a family historian.