My Ancestors

This is my first blog post. I set out on this journey intrigued as much by the experience of blogging as I am the journey of uncovering and sharing my family history.

We all seem fascinated to learn about where we come from and to uncover stories about our ancestors. I still have the first family tree I drew. I was just 12 years old, and I think it must have been part of a school project. I remember sitting at the table in my grandparent’s house in Cleethorpes, drawing neatly on graph paper with pencil and ruler and asking grandad what he knew about his parents and grandparents. Of course, I now so wish I’d recorded that conversation… and that I’d asked a lot more questions. How can I help the generations that come after me get the best answers to those questions that, when I’m gone, they’ll wish they’d asked me? That’s a core part of this quest.

The history I learned at school always seemed very remote. I can still recite a pretty useless list of treaties and incidents that occurred between the First and Second World Wars … 1925 Locarno Treaty, 1926 Treaty of Berlin etc. How much more interesting it would have been to learn about the social history that impacted the day-to-day lives of our ancestors, the economics of the times, their working lives, the games and pastimes they enjoyed, how they met, and the factors that led to their emigration from the countryside to towns or across oceans.

And then linked to this, there is the very unlikeliness of our own being. Accidents and fatal illnesses struck with much greater suddenness and frequency. One of my 4 x great grandfathers died at the age of just 26. A stray bullet in the Somme in April 1918 killed my grandmother’s first husband. He was just 23. If he wasn’t lying in that grave in Aveluy Wood Cemetery then grandma wouldn’t have remarried and I wouldn’t be here… it can become quite philosophical stuff this family history.

I also love the detective work. Not much has passed down through our family by way of heirlooms, but the oldest thing I have is a small pen and ink sketch dated 1806. It shows a British whaling ship being captured and burned by a French frigate.

Over the years this drawing has helped me slowly uncover a fascinating story about one of my thirty-two 4 x great grandfathers held captive in France for almost eight years.

Finally there are the connections that family history helps us make. Tracing second, third and even fourth cousins can be extremely rewarding. (Fourth cousins are those with whom we share one pair of 3 x great grandparents.) As well as making new friends, new information, photogrpahs and stories can open up whole new lines of enquiry. A seventh cousin once made contact and popped in for tea! I once worked out that if each couple had three children who all survived to get married and have a further three children, then, including spouses, your 3 x great grandparents should provide you with 9,332 relations to research. It’s an extraordinarily large number. I’ve not rechecked my workings, so if you disagree (or agree) feel free to let me know. In future posts I’ll talk more about the incredible mathematics of genealogy. DNA has also added another dimension to making connections. Now you can see people where the science is telling you that you are clearly connected. The mutual puzzle becomes working out just how.

As I add to this blog I want to go into more detail on all of these aspects and more, but most importantly I want to bring back to life some of my ancestors by telling their stories.

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