Open research cases

The uncertainty belongs in the story.

A case file shows more than an answer. It preserves the competing explanations, the record trail, and the evidence that could force a new conclusion.

Case 01

unresolved

Who were Benjamin Meason’s parents?

The strongest record placed Benjamin in a real inheritance network and changed which explanations remain safe, but did not name his parents.

Known: Benjamin was named as one of Joseph Meason’s heirs at law in an 1813 deed.
Not established: Which sibling branch connected Benjamin to Joseph, and who Benjamin’s parents were.

Enter the case

Case 02

accepted

How does George belong to Benjamin’s family?

Benjamin’s will names James S. as his son. George’s placement as another son rests on an indirect chain through land, households, and later Texas kinship statements.

Known: George’s placement as Benjamin’s son is accepted in the working tree as a high-confidence indirect conclusion.
Not established: No reviewed record directly states “George, son of Benjamin,” or gives the relationship between James S. and James L. Whether the Missouri James L. was the elder James L. later recorded in Texas remains unresolved.

Enter the case

Case 03

conflicting

Where was Benjamin’s family burial ground?

The will proves a reserved family burial square and a later survey names Benjamin and Hannah. The known patent and survey disagree by one range.

Known: Benjamin reserved a seventy-foot-square family burial ground containing his wife’s remains on the farm devised to James S.
Not established: Whether that farm was the known Range 11 patent tract and where the surveyed Range 10 cemetery physically lay.

Enter the case

Inside case 01

Parentage investigations

These focused reconstructions support the open question of Benjamin Meason’s parentage. They are working views within the parentage case—not additional top-level cases or proof of a particular parent-child relationship.

Evidence reconstruction

The Thousand Acres on Highland Creek

Follow the named heirs and recorded relationships around Highland Creek without turning the open parentage hypothesis into a proved family connection.

Explore the reconstruction

Identity reconstruction

The Three Thomases

Separate three documented men who shared the name Thomas and see which identities remain possible, excluded, or unresolved.

Meet the three Thomases