 Highly unusual for a 17th @-@ century American settler , Arnold began a family record based on entries from the local parish registers in England and brought this with him to New England ; this family record would eventually span more than 200 years and six generations . Nearly 300 years after his birth , a fabricated pedigree for Arnold was published , claiming his descent from 12th @-@ century kings living in Wales . Three and a half decades later , in 1915 , his correct ancestry was published , but not before the misinformation had been printed in an important source for Rhode Island genealogy . 
