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Skeletons in the Trees
Apr. 1st, 2012 12:50 pmMy grandfather-in-law was a keen genealogist. In a family history that came out in 1974, he wrote that Pamela "... may have been a child of natural birth. Be that as it may, she had a number of descendants who were very fine people, and we shall list her as generation 3 and continue from there."
Child of natural birth? Hmmm, I thought natural childbirth was the norm in those days not the exception, as it has unfortunately become in more recent times (though kudos to the Ontario government for planning to open more birthing centres!). On my side of the family, learning of the name of one of my ancestors, I once remarked in all innocence that her first name SOUNDED like an older person whereas her second name sounded very modern to me, as I've come across a number of people by that name, of both genders. "Well you know," my mother replied, "I think she was born on the wrong side of the blanket." Aah, another wonderful expression! In this case, though, the ancestor was not necessarily born out of wedlock; it's just that the wedlock her mother was still technically locked into at the time was not to the presumed genetic father of her child.
You never know what you'll discover when you start tracing your family tree, though events that might have been considered scandalous in their day can hardly be viewed through the same lens today. I doubt if I'll ever be as keen on doing genealogical research as my sister is - life's just too short to spend that much time on it, though I'm always interested to learn what she has found out. I tend to be more interested in what life was like for previous generations in general, rather than the specific names and dates of my particular ancestors. And increasingly, now that I am myself a grandmother, I'm feeling the urge to write my own memoirs so that my descendants will know what life was like when I was younger.
Child of natural birth? Hmmm, I thought natural childbirth was the norm in those days not the exception, as it has unfortunately become in more recent times (though kudos to the Ontario government for planning to open more birthing centres!). On my side of the family, learning of the name of one of my ancestors, I once remarked in all innocence that her first name SOUNDED like an older person whereas her second name sounded very modern to me, as I've come across a number of people by that name, of both genders. "Well you know," my mother replied, "I think she was born on the wrong side of the blanket." Aah, another wonderful expression! In this case, though, the ancestor was not necessarily born out of wedlock; it's just that the wedlock her mother was still technically locked into at the time was not to the presumed genetic father of her child.
You never know what you'll discover when you start tracing your family tree, though events that might have been considered scandalous in their day can hardly be viewed through the same lens today. I doubt if I'll ever be as keen on doing genealogical research as my sister is - life's just too short to spend that much time on it, though I'm always interested to learn what she has found out. I tend to be more interested in what life was like for previous generations in general, rather than the specific names and dates of my particular ancestors. And increasingly, now that I am myself a grandmother, I'm feeling the urge to write my own memoirs so that my descendants will know what life was like when I was younger.
