@Robert Grant Brünner While it is difficult to prove with 100% that something did not exist it is not that difficult to shoot holes in something with no sourcing. I could do this myself, but, since my time is short, I will throw a reference to an older Rootsweb query and a little gift from Ancestry as a starting place: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/2001-05/... and http://search.ancestry.com/browse/bookview.aspx?dbid=25957&iid=...
Of particular interest in this second link are pages 154 and 235. It is my belief that this unsourced book is the origin of the ancestry given today in Geni for Mareen Duvall. Notice that there are two versions of the line of Mareen Duvall given. Page 154 with parents Massiott DuVall and Margaret Orbin and 235 with Thomas DuVall and Nicola Stagard, hence one part of the problem on Geni, concerning which is his parent. Note that neither of these lists actual sources for the data. Unfortunately, to not list any sources was a common thing at one point, and people often take things like this as a true accounting.
The line on page 154 gives a place name for the father of Mareen Duvall as "The Province of St. Lawrence and the Fief of St. Aubin." Unfortunately, there is no Province of St. Lawrence in France. This is discussed further in the Rootsweb link that I used above. If the "source" does not even use accurate place names, how can it be trusted that the remaining information is accurate? Also in this line, even the narrative given does not make sense (taking out the non-existent place names for clarity): Mareen Duvall was the son of Massiott Duvall and Margaret Orbin. Massiott was the son fo William Du Vall who married Alexine Mamusin, daughter of Alex Mamusin, daughter of Lady Agnes de Marmien, who married Lawrence Du Vall, son of John Du Vall b. 1375, married ________, had son, Robert Du Vall, married Lady Jane Pritot, Robert was son of Hugh Du Vall who married Adelina ______. Now, after reading that... who begat who? Was Alex Mamusin the daughter of Lady Agnes de Marmien who married Lawrence Du Vall? If so, how did that happen? Was William Du Vall the "daughter" and they really meant son of Lady Agnes de Marmien who married Lawrence Du Vall? If so, how did that happen? If the latter is correct, that daughter was put in the place of son, that makes Mareen Duvalls male ancestry Mareen (who was generally accepted to have been born somewhere in the range of 1625), then Massiott, William, Lawrence then John who was born in 1375. They managed to cover 4 generations in 250 years??? If John was born in 1375 and was the father of Lawrence when he was 50 (1425), then Lawrence would have had to have been the father of William when he was 50 (1475), then he would have had to have been the father of William when he was 50 (1525), then he would have had to have been the father of Massiott when he was 50 (1575), then he would have had to have been the father of Mareen when he was 50 (1625). How many times would you have seen a line like that in the Middle Ages??? It's not realistic. Do you honestly expect me to believe this line is true??? There is far too much in there that is obviously untrue, and since there is no sourcing to even back it up, it is garbage and not worth the paper it was originally printed on.
The line on page 235 is slightly better, but still has problems. While it adds placenames, they similarly do not exist. It does add 1 generation, which solves part of the problem of not having enough generations from 1375 and 1625, but it is still expecting some longish lifetimes. And again it is not sourced.
Books like this can not be used in sourcing an accurate genealogy. They add an unacceptable degree of inaccuracy. However, over and over again, you can find unsourced information like this all over the internet. Somebody read this once upon a time, and because it was in print, accepted it as true. That can not be farther from the truth. One of my crusades, for years, has been to get stuff like this out of my lines. This is far from the only family this has happened to, and at least these are easily dismissed. There are/were some genealogy frauds who actually used sources, and documents, and occasionally created their own to fill a gap, to make genealogies (Gustave Anjou being one of the more famous of that ilk).
I have lived in Prince Georges County MD for about 9 years now, and have been taking that opportunity, when I have time to work on the families I have in this area, including Duvall. There is a LOT of history around here... if you look hard for it.
I HAVE to get ready for work.
Patrick
BTW: I have both of the books you mention. Both are well done, and seemingly accurate for the most part. The Doepkins book is truly fascinating. I highly recommend these to anybody doing serious research on these families.
