I have done it!  I’ve made my greatest genealogical discovery ever!  For five years, my top research priority has been to discover the parentage of my great-grandfather, Richard Gines of Shreveport, Louisiana.  Following an intensified search this spring and summer, I can now say with the appropriate degree of confidence utilizing the Genealogical Proof Standard, that I have solved this mystery.

George Guion of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, born in Tennessee in about 1835, appears to be the father of Richard William Gines.  In a series of posts starting tomorrow, I describe how I came to this conclusion.  I’ll also address the following issues:

• So You’ve Knocked Down a Brick Wall–Now What?
• Why Genealogy is Doctrinally More Like Paleontology and Cosmology than History
• The Family Implications of this Discovery–What I’m Worried About
• Why I Have to Revise Some Major Assumptions
• Why It Took Five Years

and more.

Here’s a key document:

page from 1870 Census of Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana

So be here tomorrow as we begin the story!