Travis, my copilot for this journey, has a theorem. He believes that he has swiftly found substantive evidence that will link the Maryland Babbs to the VA/NC Babbs. I think this is his picture above, but I’m not exactly certain.
We are going to put that theory to the test and see where it leads. If there is anything I’ve learned about the NC/VA Babb(s) is that they are dogmatic in their beliefs that these two lines of similarly plural-ed Babbs have a direct connection.
To be up front, I am highly suspect of this theory. The standard of proof is going to be exceptionally high as the Y-DNA evidence is against them. To date we have two connections in the Maryland Babb line that match perfectly. We also have 9 connections in the VA/NC Babb lines that all match to each other in an exacting fashion.
Yet, this plucky line of Babbs descendants will not be deterred from their goal of proving some form of connection between the two lines. I disagree, but I wish them well in convincing me.
To be clear, not all of the VA/NC Babb families use the plural spelling of our surname. I’ve come to believe that it is a colloquial affectation that has no bearing on the validity of the line it represents. A number of pluralistic Babbs came to America and most, but not all, of them lost their “S”.
Travis is either going to come out a victor and go to Disneyland or go down in flames. We won’t know until we explore his ideas.
We will explore that in an upcoming post in the not too distant future.
Stay tuned!
2 responses to “The Travis Theorem”
Interesting and sure to be entertaining! I would love this to be proven, but the “Y” is the truth-teller!
The Y-DNA trail is certainly the biggest thing counting against it. But what Y can’t tell us is if there was a single act of infidelity that led to the creation of a new Genetic Tree being founded.
There is still a lot to consider but given what we currently know and moreover what we think we know; it would have to be a high level in the tree. We have each line dating back a few hundred years. However, I do see gaps in the Y-DNA records that would allow for such a scenario to have taken place. That is what we need to flesh out.
Think about the effort involved and how long it took to get to an answer about Phillip Babb of the Isles of Shoals and you’ll have some perspective on what this journey might end up looking like. At the very least we would be setting the stage for future genealogists to resolve the problem.