I am auditioning titles for my new book on Martin Trentham. This is one of my favorites. In what will surely become an unfinished project laced with self-inflicted bouts of lunacy, I’ve decided that I simply can’t take it any more. I’ve developed an obsession (thus the lunacy) of trying to set people straight on the topic of Martin Trentham – all four of them. I was not born with this obsession. I came about it honestly after prolonged exposure to misinformation on the Internet about the many Martins.
Here’s an example I stumbled upon just recently: “He (Martin Trentham) was born 1771 in Kershaw Co, South Carolina, and died Bef. Nov 1837 in Tipton Co., TN.”
First, there’s no evidence that this Martin Trentham was born in 1771. Nada. People’s ages didn’t start appearing in the census records until 1850 and he was most certainly dead by then. Furthermore, we know from Lewis Peach’s 1884 letter to the editor that it was this Martin Trentham – Lewis’ great grandfather and the subject of the sentence above – who fought in the American Revolution. But he wouldn’t have been 5 years old. That doesn’t make sense.
Second, Martin’s death date is not just wrong, it’s not even his. The author references as evidence a court document from Tipton County, Tennessee in which Henry Trentham was named the administrator of Martin’s will.
Wrongo.
The person who wrote this sentence got it backwards. MARTIN posted a bond on November 6, 1837 to become the administrator of HENRY’s will. It was Henry who died before November 1837, not Martin. Had she turned the page, the misinformed writer would have seen Martin listed with two other witnesses and Martin’s “seal” next to his name. Sigh. The lemmings have copied this misinformation into their family trees and think it’s correct. It’s not. Martin Trentham was very much alive on November 6, 1837.
And so I’ve decided to compile every known historic appearance of the four men named Martin Trentham into a single, well-referenced and comprehensive tome to try to set the record straight. The Library of Congress will most assuredly see the importance of this work and will accept it readily. Besides, it’s not like I needed more work to do what with work, this blog and genealogy – but someone’s got to make sense of it all.
Kenfolk: Tranthams
Relation: 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grandfathers named Martin Trentham
Common ancestor: the 9th