Last week's post about our upcoming trip to France to trace my wife's extensive roots and history prompted me to find this article written almost seven years ago. Suddenly, it seems to have fresh relevancy.
I am not terribly interested in my family's history. I come from a small family. For reasons never explained, my dad had zero interest in involving his two brothers, their families, and their families offspring in our lives.
I only knew my maternal grandparents and my mom's brother. I know our roots are in England and Scotland, but I have never been terribly excited about tracing my family tree back through many generations. I wasn't moved even when we lived in Salt Lake City, home of one of the most extensive genealogical research libraries in the country.
Obviously, my wife is more involved than I. Her family is large, with lots of branches on her family tree. Besides a permanent link to Ancestry.com, she has journals and photo albums crammed with family memorabilia. A few notebooks are overflowing with the kinds of details that serious seekers of family history love.
Obviously, my wife is more involved than I. Her family is large, with lots of branches on her family tree. Besides a permanent link to Ancestry.com, she has journals and photo albums crammed with family memorabilia. A few notebooks are overflowing with the kinds of details that serious seekers of family history love.
At one point, I remember a distant relative did visit us to share letters, birth certificates, and other official-looking pieces of paper with Betty. That visit prompted her to start a more serious look into her past. Hence, our fall trip to castles and World War II sites.
In doing a little research for this post, I ran across Genealogy In Time Magazine. One of its articles presented answers as to why someone would find all of this interesting or important. In summary, some reasons include validating family stories, tracing medical conditions or land ownership, locating birth parents, and linking to famous people or historical events.
In doing a little research for this post, I ran across Genealogy In Time Magazine. One of its articles presented answers as to why someone would find all of this interesting or important. In summary, some reasons include validating family stories, tracing medical conditions or land ownership, locating birth parents, and linking to famous people or historical events.
If you want to read the full article, click this link. Because the piece is several years old, the site might trigger a warning that it is not secure because it hasn't upgraded to the more secure https:// URL. I have revisited it several times and believe it to be fine, but if you are concerned, skip the link.
Frankly, I had not considered some of the reasons noted for engaging in family research. Since I like exploring on the Internet and am naturally somewhat curious about things I don't understand, I see this whole area in a slightly different light. I have been told there is a connection in my family to Daniel Boone, but I have never validated it.
I remember reading that Barack Obama is related to Dick Cheney. Now, there is an odd couple. That same article said Mr. Obama is also linked with George Washington and Rush Limbaugh. See, it gets stranger by the minute! The PBS show, Finding Your Roots does fascinate me. And no, not everyone is 6 degrees or less away from Kevin Bacon.
All this could trigger people to get hooked on family history research. Besides Daniel Boone, I could share some blood with Abe Lincoln or Al Capone. Maybe I don't want to know that.
What about you? Are you interested in all your family's past twists and turns? Do you have old documents that trace your ancestors to some historical event? Or, like me, do you prefer to let sleeping dogs lie. You aren't particularly motivated to learn about all that?
I am interested in what you have to say. The challenge of using the Internet to trace my side of the family back a few hundred years might be fun, particularly after Betty's experiences. What you have to say may inspire me.
Frankly, I will be paying very close attention to your ancestral thoughts.
I am not interested in doing the research, but my oldest son is. He keeps us updated of his latest finds which are pretty interesting. Probably the most interesting is that my parents were 7th cousins. Not really surprising since both of my mother's parents and my paternal grandmother's grandparents X times removed were from the same area.
ReplyDeleteThe Finding Your Roots TV show often reveals those types of connections. Not unusual, though, since as you note, multi-generational familes tended to stick close to one another.
DeleteWhat do they say about knowing the past so you know where you're going in the future? My paternal family has connections to the Vikings and the Dundrum Castle in the County Mourne of Ireland going back to the 12th century. That link to the Vikings explained some personality traits for me!! There are some "whoohoo" moments as well. Again, my paternal family homesteaded on a NE quarter of section 27 in South Dakota. I live on a NE quarter of section 27 in Alberta. My given name has middle east origins & my paternal great grandmother came from Spain which borders geographically. One thing I've learned about legacy - we're either trying to live up to it or live it down! Bob, have you never been curious to explore your father's "estrangement" from his brothers?
ReplyDeleteThe estrangement was something he would not talk about, even when asked directly. His only answer was he was dedicated to our family.
DeleteSince I had no connection with my uncles I was hesitant to broach maybe a painful subject. My mom had no idea either. Strange indeed.
Betty says she has Vikings in her distant past, too. That might explain why she enjoys shows about Vikings on TV.
Betty needs to watch the Last Kingdom. It makes the Viking side make sense.
DeleteAbout 10 years ago daughter had to do an assignment on family history for her Early Childhood Education college diploma and that got us looking into what we could find. It was interesting to see the questions on her assignment -- Why did they immigrate to Canada? How did they find housing? How did they find work? How did they cope with language and cultural differences? And so on. Even with research there wasn't much she could say about any of that.
ReplyDeleteTracing my father's family was relatively straightforward as they have all been burred in the same church graveyard since 1862 (the church opened in 1858). The 100 acre the family farm just east of Toronto Canada is still intact though no longer in the family as it was expropriated in the 1970s by the government for a new airport that they never built, it's government leased farmland now. That said, going beyond that 1862 gravesite is difficult as there were no immigration records then, and other than "they came from Scotland" little else was known by any living family. Our investigations indicate that they would have come Aberdeenshire in the North East of Scotland during one of the Highland Clearances (probably crofters) and settled in Canada sometime in the early 1800's but we can't be more precise than that.
Interestingly my father's mother's family is easy to trace as they were Methodist Church missionaries sent to Canada by the Church and there are lots of church records going back to England before that. They arrived in the very early 1800's and one even fought on "our" side (British) in the 1812 war and was granted a large parcel of land in what is now the east side of Toronto for the serious injuries sustained during the war. Unfortunately he didn't take up the land grant, it'd be worth billions now. This side of the family was the only one that had any famous connection as one of them was the physician to the King at one point.
When we did that for my father's side my mother asked me if we could trace her roots too and my first question was "What were your grandparents names?". My mother answered "grandma and grandpa" -- we had a good laugh about that. We were able to find a newspaper death notice for her grandmother which gave us their names, relatives names, and a place to start.
My mother's family are French Canadians which means they would have come to Canada (New France then) sometime before 1759, which was when the English defeated the French at a pivotal battle just outside Quebec City, after that all immigration to Canada from France was halted. Exact dates and history are hard to find as they appear to have moved back and forth between English speaking Upper Canada (now Ontario) and French speaking Lower Canada (now Quebec) so any records are confused as each used different record keeping methods and with their French names sometimes spelled phonetically (and incorrectly) by English record keepers, one I recall was the family name St.Godard being recorded as Sagadore (it took a while to figure that one out). Even so it is safe to say that they began as fur traders plying the rivers trading with the indigenous peoples.
Anyway, that's what we could turn up and it was an interesting project for her and for me. Without it we wouldn't have done the research and we are glad we did.
I think you have answered the question about family history research in the positive! You have quite a handle on your various family branches. As I read comments like yours I do feel an urge to delve deeper into the Lowry side of things. Betty has started but figures it is my job to probe further.
DeleteDuring the first year of the pandemic, I signed up for an online beginning genealogy course at my local Senior College, not because I had a strong interest, but because there were only a few courses being offered, and this seemed like the one most likely to provide me with much-needed intellectual stimulation and social connection. As a class project, I decided to try to sort out my father's natal family. We had always been told that my father was the youngest of thirteen children, but only seven of those thirteen survived to adulthood. Except for a brother who died in an automobile accident as a teenager, no one (not even my father's oldest sister) seemed to know anything about the dead siblings -- not whether they were boys or girls, their names, how old they were when they died, or what they died of. I succeeded in finding my grandparents' birth records in rural Quebec, and the record of their immigration to the United States as a young married couple. I also found birth and death records for four of the five missing siblings, three of whom had died in infancy and one as a toddler. (I wonder if the fifth might actually been a late miscarriage and therefore not recorded as a birth or death.) I enjoyed scouring the decennial census records for my father's family and discovering where they were living, who has living in the household, and what kinds of occupations they were in through the decades. It was also fascinating to watch how the rendering of their names changed as they became more Americanized. In the end, I put together a time-line for my older sister, who is really interested in this stuff but who doesn't have access to the resources to do the research.
ReplyDeleteYour journey is a powerful example of trying something new with no idea where it is going to take you or how you swill react. I sense that you enjoyed this course and what you learned to be well worth the effort, both for you and your sister.
DeleteFinding out of the relatives who had disappeared from family memory must have been quite a kick. It is like a detective taking on an old file and solving the case.
Hi Bob! Like you, I have never had an interest in looking deep into my ancestry, so I guess I am not very inspiring. However, it seems like it is quite popular among retirees. I know my dad's side back a couple generations and I am good with that. My husband's family has a town named after their family in Norway, so we have considered going back to see it. That could spark delving a little deeper into his side of the family.
ReplyDeleteI think I could be motivated to explore the Lowry-Munn (paternal and maternal) side of things, but take it slowly. I can see how all the material and all the paths that open up could consume someone's time quite quickly. I would have to pace myself since I normally take on a new challenge full speed ahead.
DeleteA maternal grandfather was orphaned, raised by a grandmother who never acknowledged him. He died when Mom was a teen.
ReplyDeleteA maternal grandmother moved with her father to Chicago and then Phoenix after her mother and brother passed away from consumption.
A paternal grandmother died in a fire when dad was 18 months. His father left his ancestral home of Baltimore to start again in Phoenix. He did keep genealogy, but died before finding out that he was WAY more English then Irish.
Mom wanted to know about her unknown family, so our combined 40 year quest started. My second cousin on my dad’s side also went on the hunt. The largest jumps have been made on the internet.
Connections to: English sea captain who settled Maine, Irish and German immigrants who fled north for the Civil War, indentured servant who worked in the Kent Fort,Maryland, possible Scottish “first night” child of King Richard, Quakers who rowed south to open runaway houses. Teachers, preachers, soldiers, sailors, stone carvers, weavers, farmers, servants- always looking forward.
My father had a brother who died before he was born. My mother’s father was only 14 when he worked his way west.
So many stories to uncover. Triumph, tragedy, hardships and joy. Knowing their stores makes me understand better who I am and who my grandchildren could be. Resilience is in our DNA. I am sure it is in yours as well.~Janette
Wow..what a fascinating batch of family history you have uncovered. Learning about what shaped us and is responsible for some of our traits makes sense when put into the context of our past.
DeleteI am feeling a tingling of interest!
I’m not all that interested in researching my family history. I inadvertently came across a fact that threw me for a veritable loop: my uncle Barry is actually my full blooded brother Chris. (Small English village where out of wedlock children were a scourge on the good family name.) This insight impacted me (living in the US) harder than I would ever have imagined. Don’t need any more “identity quakes.” I’m sure, knowing a few of my English relatives, that isn’t the only skeleton. Sleeping dogs can snooze away, undisturbed.
ReplyDeleteStories like yours is why I would approach those genetic history tests with caution, sometimes you find out what you don't want to find out. A friend of mine found out that her sister is really only her half sister (apparently by a close family friend that lived up the street) and for sure they found it unsettling. Not that there's any blame, people are people, but ignorance can be bliss.
DeleteThere are often surprises on the "Finding Your Roots" show. Connections to slavery, half brothers and sisters, an affair that lead to not knowing whose one's father truly is...the past has its dark side.
DeleteThere is one issue that worries me for those who are adopted near their birthplace as well as the highly mobile adopted child. Will they, by chance, have children with a sibling or near cousin? (I have learned not to say fall in love or marry). As well, sperm banks-will women IVF with a near relative (parent, uncle, sibling, near cousin). Adoption is a glorious option for women and their children as well as the loving adults who adopt them and IVF as well. But the potential for adult disaster is there. I know families with open adoptions and I know families who could never ever cope emotionally with an open adoption. I know a young lady who found her birth parents just 4w after starting the search and they were only 20 miles away, her having been born at the local hospital. It nearly destroyed her family including 2 siblings. All in their 20s but brutal nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteTika's story made me think of this!
I am thankful for the last few comments that point out the potential for hidden or unknown discoveries. Going into family research with your eyes open is necessary.
DeleteI have researched my family over the years and it has generated a feeling of gratitude and respect. I have often realized (as a Boomer) that mine was the first generation that could largely enjoy the comforts of a life built on the sacrifice of previous generations. My family came from Switzerland, driven out by religious wars in the early 1600's into western Germany (I was able to visit my ancestral home in Lenk, a town in the Bernese Oberland and find distant cousins). They then migrated to the American Colonies in 1732, settling in rural Pennsylvania and opening a "public house," hence my love for beer! Descendants of the migrants fought in the Revolutionary War (on the right side) and then moved south into the Carolinas and west into Indiana and Iowa in the ever expanding United States. My widowed third great grandmother came west with her daughter to Oregon from Iowa in a wagon train in 1852 (I have their diary, it was a harrowing journey!) and her son (my great great grandfather) soon followed. And here I am, within 60 miles of their original land-grant homestead. For me, as I said, my exploration into my family roots has provided me with a sense of gratitude for the courage and sacrifices they made. I know others may have stories of less than positive experiences (some of my native American friends) and may find pain and sadness in their explorations, but it is our history which we can remember and discover how it has shaped our lives.
ReplyDeleteRick in Oregon
Your family history is fascinating. To be able to track things back as far as you have is amazing. A sense of gratitude and new respect for what our ancestors when through are common reactions after learning about our history.
DeleteYou make an important point about uncovering unsavory or distressing chapters: these facts remain a part of our personal path and what we have become. Glossing over the wrongs that have occured in previous generations doesn't allow us to feel better about how civilization has (and is) evolving and how we fit into that narrative.
We also love Finding Your Roots and I'm amazed by how far back they go on some guests. The saddest story to me was Questlove finding out that his ancestors were on the very last slave ship to America. That had to be earth shattering to him.
ReplyDeleteAs the oldest in my family with each parent coming from a family of eight, I have always been interested in the stories of our family. My maternal ancestors emigrated from Finland and my paternal ancestors came to the US from Quebec, so probably France originally. There are cousins on each side who have traced some of the family history and convened family reunions (I have 63 first cousins), so I have family tree graphs and photos several generations back on each side. But I haven't pursued more detail myself, although I have recorded my mom's family stories for posterity, since she's 90 and I won't remember them all if we don't write them down.
Betty has really intriguing family history and I can see why she wants to visit those areas and pursue it further. As for your family, Bob, I have a few family stories that haven't been talked about much, and if I ask questions, I get vague answers or hit a wall. Makes me assume there is some unsavory detail I would rather not hear. Probably more families have those than we realize.
Yes, human relationships can be complicated affairs. Frankly, I would like to find a mixture of heroes and villains in my past. That would be much more interesting.
Delete63 first cousins...do you realize how large your family poster would be on Finding Your Roots?
We emigrated when I was an infant. When I was 18 I went back for 30 days. I spent a great deal of time talking to my Grandmothers, Aunts and Uncles. All 4 of my grandparents had 12-16 siblings. I have over 300 first and second cousins. We didn't try to go to 3rds. (I was a late born child so my grandparents were already in their 80s).
DeleteFamily trees can be wild when the family is prolific ;-)
I have a mild interest in genealogy, and have done some searching on Ancestry. It's somewhat interesting to learn where I came from, but I haven't unearthed any stories. I am fairly confident about back to great grandparents. I do have some lineage after that, but, of course, it get murkier and murkier.
ReplyDeleteMy wife has looked back a few generations into my family but has not uncovered anything nefarious....yet.
DeleteYes, I find family history fascinating. How did we all end up here, wherever that is? And I'm always curious about the history of people's names, first and last. Were we named for family members? Celebrities? Places? Virtues? And what is the origin of our family name?
ReplyDeleteWe were always more connected to my mom's huge extended family than my dad's smaller one. If I run into someone with my mom's maiden name, I can be sure that somehow we are cousins. But if I run into someone with my dad's last name, I can be just as sure that we are not related.
So yes, I like knowing family history and stories, but not enough to do any research about it. I just accept gratefully what has been handed down.
We opted for no children. Hubster is the end of his family name. Unlike me, he has a very small family as well.
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