I came across something like that once. I am related to them through a maternal line. Another genealogist was working on their paternal line. I made the connection through her. She was able to talk some sense into them. I had all the dates from the parish records. Versis their word of mouth family belief. I even had pictures 2 generations before theirs.

Could a second cousin of Sheridan's have married into your family? Being related and being a descendant are way different. By the 1800s people moved around. Unless you have traced all your descendents back to at least 1800 I don't think you can prove or disprove anything.

That same family of ours had someone that was a close relation to Aaron Burr. I believe that to be true even though it looks impossible. I don't think the church records survived. They were living in the firelands of CT. Named so because the British burn buildings in the area. They burned churches except for the church of England.

It is easy to lose track of families if they lived in the fronteer of NY.