What's in My Name? A family Tree disaster

Okay, I'm screwed. A possible branch of my family tree just fell on top of my head.

I used to have a great mnemonic for people to remember my name, but now I can't in good faith use it any longer without making concessions to John Fitch.

Apparently, if you try to look me up on Facebook, which I'm not on, and type in my name, an article comes up proclaiming that my namesake, the New York inventor, Robert Fulton, did not invent the Steamboat, but rather, some guy named John Fitch did. What's even worse is that John Fitch, depressed and dejected, committed suicide over this oversight in Bardstown, Kentucky, just down the road from where we lived in Louisville.

Apparently, Fulton had some high-powered friends in the Patent office and was able to lay claim to the Steamboat, and well, the rest was, history.

Now, my condolences to the Fitch family and its untold legacy, and if this is true, give credit where credit is due.

In my classes for adults learning English as Second Language that I taught in Antwerp, as well as my undergraduate students at The University of Texas, I used to say, "Robert Fulton, you know, the guy who invented the Steamboat."

WTF, I'm screwed now. That always (or, at least quite often) worked like a charm.

What do I say now, "Hi, I'm Robert Fulton, you know, like the guy who ripped off the patent for the Steamboat because of influential American Capitalists, driving John Fitch, the unrecognized genius of the plan to commit suicide and be lost in the annals of history...that Robert Fulton, whom according to my father, now deceased, though also named Robert Fulton, we are related to..."

I am having an identity crisis.