There Were Three Brothers And…

Genealogy newcomers often trip over the "three brothers" story. It has been repeated thousands of times. I have yet to see one instance in which it is accurate.

The story always starts with something like this:

There were three brothers who immigrated to America. One went north, one went south, and one headed west, never to be heard from again.

It is an interesting story, and you might almost believe it. After all, how else can you explain the fact that the same surname pops up in so many places?

What fascinates me is that there are always three brothers, never two or four or five or six. And didn't they have any sisters? Why did they go in three different directions? Couldn't two of them go someplace together while the third struck out on his own? Why does each one take a different trip?

An examination of thousands of immigration and naturalization records shows that brothers usually remained close-knit and usually resided near each other after immigration. The "three brothers" myth apparently was invented and repeated by lazy genealogists who could not be bothered to find the truth. It is a poor excuse for rationalizing why the same surname appears in multiple locations.

When searching for surnames in immigration records, you normally will find more than one immigrant of the name. In many cases, each immigrant did not know the others and moved to wherever he pleased. Later genealogists tried to justify the appearance of one surname in multiple locations and assumed something that is not documented in any records.

Be wary of the three brothers myth. You always want to confirm such claims to establish that indeed there were three brothers instead of three unrelated men with the same last name. Yes, someplace in history there probably were three brothers somewhere who split up and went separate ways. But 99.9% of the "three brothers" stories you will hear are fictitious. Before you accept the "three brothers" story in your family tree, do yourself a favor: find documentation that proves the names of their parents.

Speaking of genealogy myths, in a future newsletter I will write about Cherokee princesses.

Comments

[Linda Pazics Kleback]

Thank you for writing about this! Many of the genealogy patrons at our library cherish the three brothers story and don't want to hear anything different. And yes, many have Cherokee princesses, too. Anything you can do to spread the word about genealogy myths is welcome!

[AnnieA]

I can document both in Germany and in Pennsylvania that my ancestor and his two brothers did indeed arrive at Philadelphia on the same ship in 1772. They did, however, stay fairly close together in Pennsylvania and New Jersey after they served their indentures. They were Johannes, Johan Jost and Christian Frickhoefer which later became Freehafer.
Ann Ward Freehafer Andersen

[William Gravil]

Thank You so Much! My mother has repeated that story to me ever since I was a child. She swears to it. A relative of ours did our family tree back to the Crossing of a Scottish Ancestor but My mother rejects it because of the "Three Brothers" story! Thank You so much for this important insight.

[Ruairí Ó Bléine]

I have found this theme a recurring one in Irish family history research. It goes like,"Three brothers came from... and settled in three contiguous townlands".
In one case it was from Scotland, another Co. Clare. My feeling is that the tale is a filler for lack of information and sounds an impressive substitute. No doubt it also gives the story a mystical quality. It is not recognised by the informant as a myth and appears in printed histories.