Mudd Descendants visit Fort Jefferson NP

[L Verge]

I feel your pain, Bill. After all these years, I still get frustrated (as you can tell). James O. Hall told me shortly after I met him in 1975, that a good guideline is to choose the path where you have the majority of sources saying basically the same thing. It doesn't have to be a huge majority, but even three out of five (preferably primary) sources can be a good indication of what probably occurred. Occasionally, someone is lucky enough to find a major discovery; but after 150 years with so many researchers in the field, that is pretty rare.