Template:Did you know nominations/John Crockett (frontiersman)

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Allen3 ^talk 17:51, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

John Crockett (frontiersman)

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... that John Crockett, father of American folk hero Davy Crockett, crossed the Appalachian Mountains with the "Overmountain Men" to fight in the American Revolutionary War Battle of Kings Mountain?

Created by Awiseman (talk). Self nom at 17:10, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

Date, length and content are fine. However, there is no reference on either sentence in the paragraph of the article to which the hook refers. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 07:29, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, it was in the Abbott book, page 13, I added it. --AW (talk) 16:26, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

The hook is fine, but the article has some significant problems with sourcing and with some glaring inconsistencies within the article and between the article and the sources. Examples of my concerns:

If John Crockett died in 1794, as stated in the lead, how could he have hired his son out to drive cattle in 1798 (as stated in the last paragraph) or done the other things mentioned in the last paragraph?
The recent book Lion of the West is cited as a source for Crockett's Huguenot ancestry, but that book clearly and emphatically states that no connection has been established between the Huguenot Crocketts and the family of Davy Crockett, in spite of frequent claims that this is "well-documented fact." Additionally, the article states that the family tradition that John or his father was born on the voyage to America from Ireland is wrong, because "in fact John's grandfather, William David Crockett, was registered as having been born in New Rochelle, New York in 1709", citing only what appears to be a personal genealogy website (I can't access it, but it's not likely to be a WP:RS) as the source for this "fact" -- and providing a wonderful example of how the unsupported claim of Huguenot ancestry has been perpetuated (New Rochelle was settled by Huguenots). As a general rule, modern books with footnotes (like Lion of the West) are more reliable than genealogy websites!
The article seems to confound the Davy Crockett Birthplace state park near Limestone with the Crockett Tavern Museum in Morristown. They are distinctly different places.
There are still several unsourced passages in the article.
I find a number of discrepancies between sources regarding details like how long Davy Crockett was away from home after he skipped out of school. This is due in part to the vague and folksy conversational style of the 19th century sources. Lion of the West seems more authoritative, on the whole. (However, it appears to me that he left in 1799 and returned in 1802, having been gone for about 30 months, give or take a couple.)
Lion of the West indicates that John Crockett was still alive in 1802 when Davy Crockett returned home -- and it tells about things that happened between father and son at that time. I find no source for the statement that he died when Davy was away.

Overall, I say that this short article needs to hang together a whole lot better before it is featured on the main page. --Orlady (talk) 18:51, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Ok. I would appreciate any help you can give me with these. The sources are pretty unclear. --AW (talk) 06:57, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Alright, I think I've fixed the issues. --AW (talk) 05:48, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Works for me. I imagine that readers will change some things after it hits the main page, but at least it's no longer inconsistent on when he was or wasn't alive. Hook fact is sourced, etc., etc. --Orlady (talk) 03:51, 30 December 2011 (UTC)