From Paper To People

From Paper To People


Confirmation Bias, Ethel McKinney, Harley Bowers, and Solon Selleck

August 22, 2024

First off, welcome back - to us all! Glad to be recording again. This season will be all about confirmation bias and the many ways it can get in the way of writing accurate life stories. My focus has been on FamilySearch in the past few years, so we'll be talking about writing those Brief Life Histories there.


This episode is about a specific search for answers about my great-granduncle, Harley Walker Bowers, his first wife Ethel Adaline McKinney, and her second husband, Solon Beecher Selleck. I expected to find out that Harley was a hound (he DID have three wives), that Ethel was a victim, and that Solon was her answer to prayer.


Not so much.


Listen as I detail discoveries that challenged all of my expectations, and rewrote this triangle of intertwined lives.