Droopy wrote:But this, as you should know if you'd studied the issue, has problems of its own, including the fact that it is a third hand account having been reported as coming from Lyon's daughter, not Lyon herself, and that the definition of the term "daughter" within this context could be quite problematic, and not at all straightforward.
I will just quote that well-known anti-Mormon, Brian Hales:
Josephine Rosetta Lyon – Biological Daughter of Joseph Smith?
Todd Compton asserted that Joseph Smith practiced sexual polyandry with Sylvia Sessions Lyon (see In Sacred Loneliness, 178-86). Sylvia's daughter, Josephine Rosetta Lyon, signed the following statement in 1915:
Just prior to my mother’s death in 1882 she called me to her bedside and told me that her days on earth were about numbered and before she passed away from mortality she desired to tell me something which she had kept as an entire secret from me and from all others but which she now desired to communicate to me. She then told me that I was the daughter of the Prophet Joseph Smith... [23]
All researchers do not agree this statement clearly declares Josephine to be the biological daughter of the Prophet.[24] It is true that words reflect some ambiguity and could possibly be interpreted to mean that Josephine was to be Joseph Smith’s daughter only in eternity, without implying an actual paternal physical connection.[25] However, other details support that Sylvia was the literal offspring of the Prophet. For example, if no biological connection existed between Josephine and Joseph Smith, it is strange that Sylvia would dramatically wait until her deathbed to divulge to her that the Prophet was her father only in eternity. If Josephine “was the daughter of the Prophet Joseph Smith” only because of a sealing ordinance, rather than through physical siring, all of Sylvia’s children would be equally his offspring. However, none of them reported any similar divulgences from their dying mother, nor would there be any compelling reason to keep such knowledge secret.[26] Josephine’s name also supports the relationship.
In addition, other sources, beyond the 1915 affidavit, corroborate the story. In 1886, future BYU president George H. Brimhall recorded: “Went to Spanish Fork… Evening had a talk with Father Hales, who told me that it was said that Joseph Smith had a daughter named Josephine living in Bountiful, Utah… Soon the contemporaries of the Prophet Joseph will be all gone.”[27] The Hales and Fisher families both emigrated from Kent, England and may have known each other prior to their arrival in the United States. In 1905, Stake President Angus Cannon had an interview with Joseph Smith III, wherein he stated:
I will now refer you to one case where it was said by the girl’s grandmother that your father has a daughter born of a plural wife. The girl’s grandmother was Mother Sessions, who lived in Nauvoo and died here in the valley. She was the grand-daughter of Mother Sessions. That girl, I believe, is living today in Bountiful, north of this city. I heard Prest. Young, a short time before his death, refer to the report and remark that he had never seen the girl, but he would like to see her for himself, that he might determine if she bore any likeness to your father.”[28]
Since Sylvia said she had never told anyone prior to revealing Josephine’s paternity to her, these accounts suggest that rumors of Josephine’s true biological father arose from other sources that received limited private circulation prior to Sylvia Sessions’ death. In other words, several historical documents support a genetic relationship between the Prophet and Josephine, besides Sylvia’s affidavit.
Hales says that, since the Lyons had separated, Joseph felt free to marry her, thus her relationship with Joseph was not necessarily polyandrous. That's problematic in itself, but I don't know any historians (well, unless you consider the Prices to be historians) who don't at least see fairly solid evidence for Joseph's paternity.
If you want to start a thread about this, be my guest. I couldn't care less about Joseph Smith's sex life. But you asserted that there's a "dearth of evidence" that Joseph was sexually involved with his wives. I'd say that demands a response, as it's demonstrably false, as is the suggestion that there is "no evidence whatsoever" regarding sexual relations with his "polyandrous" wives. Far from being fixated on Joseph Smith's sex life, I am instead more interested in truth and accuracy, and your statements were neither.