FWIW, DNA testing is helping tremendously. I don’t have any Early Colonial myself, but I’ve helped others who do, and one side of my family has the Canadian equivalent (Matriarchs and Patriarchs of Acadia). Now you can show appropriate DNA match to someone who is already “proved”. It particularly helps those of us who don’t have marriage certificates in every generation!
It even helped someone I know who was the product of adultery: the DAR accepted the genetic evidence despite the fact the the biological ancestor was not ‘legally’ in their family tree.
