Lt. Philip Thomas - Ancestry and Cleanup

Hello everyone!

Currently the Geni tree shows Lt. Philip Thomas to be the son of "Evan Thomas of Swansea" and grandson of John Thomas and Gwenllian Herbert. The Thomas line leads back to Sir Rhys ap Thomas, K.G., of Dynevor.

This lineage is the product of a Thomas family researcher named Lawrence B. Thomas, who was convinced that Philip Thomas was a descendant of the famous Rhys ap Thomas. This is because Philip Thomas was rumored to have had a coat of arms on his cane which roughly resembled the one attributed to Rhys ap Thomas. See here: https://books.google.com/books?id=JE5WAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=...

Lawrence begins with the pedigree of the Maryland Thomas family compiled by Philip E. Thomas of Baltimore in the early 1800s, in which it is said that Lt. Philip Thomas ‘s father was named Evan. Lawrence himself has no proof that this Evan Thomas existed at all, as he admits in his book “Pedigrees of Thomas, Chew, and Lawrance, a West River Register” (1888), pg. 72. https://books.google.com/books?id=JE5WAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=...

But Lawrence did not let such minor inconveniences deter him! He researched the descendants of Rhys ap Thomas until he found a line that did not adopt a last name until the 16th century, which allowed him to propose that Evan Thomas was the son of John Philip Thomas and Gwenllian Herbert. In "The Thomas Book..." he mentions an assortment of references to various Philip and Evan Thomases in English historical documents and ponders if they might refer to his ancestors, but he is unable to find any sources to document his proposed connections. See page 28 of his 1896 book, “The Thomas book, giving the genealogies of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, K. G., the Thomas family descended from him, and of some allied families” https://archive.org/details/thomasbookgivin00thomgoog/page/n64/mode....

Lawrence B. Thomas wanted something to be true, so he tried engineer a way to make it work. This is not how proper genealogical research should be done. If he had simply mentioned this lineage as a possibility that would have been okay, but in his 1896 book he presents it as a fact grounded in research and even adds a misleading appeal to authority to give credence to his theory (The Thomas Book, page 28).

Lawrence B. Thomas’ ancestry for Lt. Philip Thomas is purely hypothetical and, while it can be mentioned in Philip Thomas’ about section, should not be represented as fact on the Geni tree.

Now for the cleanup and my proposed changes: First of all, the siblings that Philip Thomas currently has need to be disconnected, I have no idea how they got attached to him. Also, the same goes for his mother, whose name is not known according to Lawrence Thomas and the current name on Geni is simply a copy of Sarah Thomas, wife of Philip Thomas.
"Evan Thomas of Swansea" needs most of his information cleaned up/removed. I think changing his name to something along the lines of Evan? or “Evan” might be necessary in order to reflect the lack of evidence for his existence. I am certainly not seeing any documentation of him ever having immigrated to Maryland. “Evan” should also be disconnected from parents John Thomas and Gwenllian Herbert, as this connection is purely hypothetical and is not based on any sources.

Sincerely,
Tamas Caldwell-Gilbert