Thomas de White - White Family, or Families?

The more I try to work with the early Whites, the more tangled the lines get. It is starting to look as though several unrelated families have been forcibly grafted together - possibly in order to flatter some far descendant's ego.

"Founding father" Sir Walter de White was born some sixty years after his putative father, William FitzMaurice Fitzgerald, 1st Baron of Naas, and in Wales - whereas his "father" had followed Strongbow to Ireland in 1171, grabbed some Irish land, and settled down to stay.

The line of Whites in Martock, Somerset Thomas Le White of Somerset is sketchy, but there is no evidence whatsoever that they were connected (let alone related) to the Yorkshire Whites Robertus Whyte, de Alnewyk.

The Surrey and Essex Whites Sir Robert Whyte, Kt., of Yatley Johannes White have also been forcibly grafted onto the Yorkshire Whites - they might, possibly, be connected to the Somerset Whites Thomas White of Martock John White of Martock, but Yorkshire?

Why does the line of Thomas *de* White Thomas Le White of Somerset echo the line of Thomas *le* White Thomas White, one generation behind? Did someone mistake a son for a brother, or a brother for a son?

Some, but not all, of the problems were caused by the highly misleading and shockingly shoddily "researched" book, "Genesis of the White Family", which proceeded from the premises that there was only *one* White family, that all persons named White *had* to be related, that they all *had* to come from illustrious stock, and that the family *must* include everyone of major significance named White. (Y-DNA research gives all of the above the razzberry.)