This isn't so much an ancestor who drives me crazy, as it is the researchers who discover John in their ancestry. He's my ancestor, so I can say this. In one of the more peculiar episodes in colonial genealogy, two men, both named John Drake, came to Massachusetts. One was from the gentry Drake family, the one that included Sir Francis Drake and one that was descended from royalty. The other was not.
The royal, gentry John Drake died early, whereas the other John Drake moved to Windsor, Connecticut and had six children by two wives, and died there on 17 August 1659. This second John Drake's English origins were researched by Douglas Richardson and given to me and not yet published. He was from Hampton in Arden, Warwickshire, England and his first wife was named Lettice Shakespeare. Yes, that Shakespeare family.
In any case, without much problems, you find out this information. It appeared in two articles in The American Genealogist 65 (1990):87-88 and 63 (1988):193-206. Unfortunately, people are citing to this book on Google Books from 1913. So, this is a long standing misidentification which will live on forever thanks to Google Books and other such sources. And that makes me crazy.
I know your delima. Ancestry.com is also a big part of this. They have made much available to us researchers, but they have also made it available to other who don't understand what they are doing or want to take the time to learn. There is so much incorrect information out there on the web now. Heck even I was guilty of it on two occasions in my first six months.
Posted by: amy Crooks | 06/03/2009 at 11:51 AM