Talk:George Washington Thomas

Positive ID?
Does anyone happen to know if George W. Thomas is the George Thomas of McKinney's Cotton Pickers? Cheers! --Technopat (talk) 22:43, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
 * No, different guy.--Technopat (talk) 23:28, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Siblings
siblings??? look at the birth-dates of Sippie Wallace and Hersal Thomas —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.51.28.94 (talk) 00:35, 9 May 2010 (UTC)
 * There is nothing especially untoward about siblings being born 23 years apart (for example, if the mother was aged 18 and 41). Ghmyrtle (talk) 22:16, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

Clay Custer
This article gives Thomas' mother's maiden name as Fannie Bradley (unsourced - and not in either of the stated sources, BARE and Silvester, that I have in front of me). However, Peter Silvester, in his book A Left Hand Like God, p.52, says in reference to Clay Custer's recording of "The Rocks" - written by Thomas - that: "It is generally held that Thomas was both the composer and the pianist who made the recording in February 1923, although the pianist's name is Clay Custer. The link between Thomas and the soubriquet he used is to be found in the maiden name of his mother, which was Custer." Unfortunately neither Silvester's book, nor this article, give any sources for these contradictory pieces of information on Thomas' mother's maiden name. If the information in this article is correct (that his mother's maiden name was Bradley), it throws into question the reasoning behind Silvester's claim that the pianist Custer was actually Thomas. Or, there could be another explanation - perhaps that Thomas' mother had taken the name Bradley from a previous marriage. In any case, so far as the article is concerned, it does seem to be reliably reported that Custer was actually Thomas. Can anyone shed any light on this? Ghmyrtle (talk) 22:15, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

PS: The reference to his mother's name was made in this edit, which claims it was sourced from Eagle and LeBlanc's Blues: A regional experience. But BARE only gives his father's name and his birthplace, not his mother's name. I will remove his mother's name, and the other extraneous details not supported by BARE or other sources. Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:57, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

PPS: I think I've now resolved this to my own satisfaction - there is clearly uncertainty as to whether or not Thomas performed as "Clay Custer". Happy to discuss further if anyone is interested. Ghmyrtle (talk) 17:45, 5 December 2016 (UTC)