Talk:Roger Dodsworth (hoax)

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Any true elements at all?

Did Roger Dodsworth have any children? Such as a son named Roger who was killed in an avalanche? Or was all of that made up as well? As far as I can tell, the real Dodsworth senior married in 1611 and had four children, listed here. I don't know how reliable that source is, but one of the children listed is called Robert (not Roger). Carcharoth (talk) 23:17, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I believe one of the sources mentioned in passing that he had no children, but I can't recall where. The current edition of the ODNB does not mention any children; the old edition (1888) does name four (Robert, Eleanor, Mary, and Cassandra - Robert, the only son, died 1645 according to ACAD, ref DDST634R), but it's not clear if they were dropped from the current one due to being wrong or simply due to not being relevant - current ODNB style doesn't usually name children. It's unlikely that the original author of the hoax in 1826 would have had access to any significant reference work to check this, though, and probably just pulled a name out of thin air.

The best provenance we could find yesterday is that the original publication in London definitely existed, but it's quite likely that the claimed original French article never existed at all. Shimgray | talk | 13:17, 5 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]