How long have you been researching your family tree?

[Aulus]

And if you ever find a Tardis or similar, do let me know.  I want to borrow it when you've finished!  Apart from seeing how they lived, I have a few questions I want to ask of a recalcitrant ancestor or two!   

MarieC

You and me too.

There are some things I want to ask the best documented people too.

So, Charles, I've got this box file full of stuff on you from your birth and baptism in 1770 right through  to your will and death certificate in 1855.  But just who on earth is this Lavinia, whom you called your eldest daughter in the piece printed in the Bury & Norwich post?

Oh, and you Frederick William.  Yes, you!  How come you died in 1892 but you carried on paying your membership dues to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society until the 1920s? 

Ah, yes.  Grandma.  If you don't tell me just what was the problem with Great Aunt Florence, I'm going to tell the Mother's Union the secret of why they liked your scones so much. 
Ok then.  Grandpa.  If you don't tell me just what was the problem with Great Aunt Florence, I'm going to tell grandma about that nice lady who lived on the way to your allotment, whom you called on regularly when you should have been at the allotment. 

Martha!  come here, Martha!  Stop hiding behind that nice Mr Jepson! Why weren't you baptised anywhere?  Your parents.  Who were they?    Are you really the daughter of Samuel Crompton, or is that a myth?

Henry.  Your turn now, Henry.  I think you were about the first Wild in Darwen.  Darwen tried to send you back to Saddleworth, but you weren't baptised there.  So where did you come from?

John Henry!  Elizabeth!  Yes, the pair of you.  Why on earth did you go all the way to some back end of nowhere village near Maldon to get married?

[MarieC]

    Aulus!  You certainly have a lot of questions to ask your ancestors!  Tricky people, obviously! 

Let me know if you have any luck with the threats and blackmail, Aulus!  I've tried entreaties and blandishments, but they don't seem to be working.  Trouble is, I don't seem to have anything to use as blackmail with my recalcitrants!   

MarieC

[Aulus]

Those are just the obvious ones!

Some, even if I could talk to her, I know I'd never get answers to from my grandma.  Like "just what happened on that charabanc outing that ended up in fisticuffs between grandpa and Billy Waddicar over you?"

[genjen]

Those are just the obvious ones!

Some, even if I could talk to her, I know I'd never get answers to from my grandma. Like "just what happened on that charabanc outing that ended up in fisticuffs between grandpa and Billy Waddicar over you?"

Oh but if you do find out, you will tell us, won't you?

[Aulus]

Well, if there's anyone reading this with a Billy Waddicar (sp?) in their tree and knows anything about a relationship with Janey Wild, later Stevenson, please do get in touch! 

[MarieC]

There's a great story there, Aulus!  Perhaps you could write a fictionalised account of what may have happened?  That's what I'm tempted to do with my missing miscreants.

MarieC

[mongrel-diaries]

delightful conversation..permit a comment from a new guy..

the question was asked yesterday in the chat room and all i could think was.."decades"...
i've written essays to myself..when no one else is listening.. about the attention deficit disorder caused by all that mulling about in multidimensional time travel..about the obsessive compulsive disorder and cultural autism of seeking the roots of genetic and cultural programming in the family bones.
1947, when the teacher asked us to think about where we each came from, I scooted down the dirt road back to the farm and posed the question to my Dad standing beside the wood stove.." are we English or Irish..?" cause that's all I had ever heard my mother talk about.. to which he responded, looking directly into my eyes.."You're a mongrel..wear it proudly.."
explaining to 89 yr old Mom today some of the details unfolding in this most recent exploration of her roots..

following threads back through Indian wars, religious wars, civil wars, dislocations, removals, very large world wars and depressions..all the variations of our silly human pathologies spawned in conflicts over religion and real estate.. just looking for bloodlines, ancestors in the clues.. the inlaws and outlaws alike..i came to one final conclusion..history is a big friggin lawnmower and we're the village lawn..

On the other side of it..Granmas from the Mohawk were right after all..all earthlings are mongrels.."one blood, one spirit.." (a matriarchal society might have done it with a gentler hand..)

thank you all for your entertaining discussion..
apologetic mongrel, colonial son..

[MarieC]

Great post, mongrel-diaries,

And welcome to Rootschat! 

You are right, we ARE all mongrels - the pure Aryan theory of Hitler was a tragic delusion.  But doesn't that make us interesting?    I wouldn't give up any of my differing bloodlines for all the rice in China!

Enjoy Rootschat!  You've come to a great place! 

MarieC

[genjen]

explaining to 89 yr old Mom today some of the details unfolding in this most recent exploration of her roots..

Hello and welcome. Is your mother still interested and able to follow it all? My partner's ma looks totally bewildered the minute we go beyond her parents' generation. It was one of the few things my own mother was interested in until very shortly before her death but only if it was what she wanted to hear. She would never accept things like illegitimacy, criminal activity or Roman Catholics in the family, in spite of my having found hard evidence of all three!

Enjoy Rootschat,

Jen