QuestionableTitles
Commoner
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2023
- Messages
- 25
- City
- Victoria
- Country
- Hong Kong
I would say it is not embarrassing but a necessity for any person in the public eye to edit their Wikipedia pages if possible. Even on discussion forums such as this, we have seen time and again how misinformation without any basis in reality is commonly believed just because it appears on Wikipedia, even after being discredited by reliable sources.
Of course, edits ought to correct misinformation and not add to it, whether the editor is a family member or not. But I would hope the "someone [who] set the record straight and added that these titles have been extinct etc" is also making the same clarifications on the articles of Alexander and others using extinct titles, rather than singling out Natacha for personal reasons.
The Marlene Koenig article which was posted upthread did not cover fact-checking of Russian genealogies in any detail. But since I am not sufficiently interested in the fiancée's ancestry to look into it myself, I will take your word that you have read articles by people who did conduct research into her ancestry and concluded that at least one of her ancestors fabricated his alleged nobility. (And I fully agree: Facts and evidence should be trusted over unsupported statements.) My point, though, was that her ancestor lying about being nobility does not mean that the whole family invented their entire family history. For example, is there any evidence that her grandfather's record of fighting in World War Two is a lie, or that her mother being Dutch is a lie?
(I will need to split my reply due to the post length limits.)
Genealogists specializing in Russian History talked to Marlene and did their own research after titlegate and confirmed Roumiantzoff title went extinct after the last Count did not have legitimate male heirs. Same goes for the other last name.