Found out some bad things about Hubby's ancestors

[forestchild]

Has anyone else found out things that they wish they hadn't about their family history?
I was happily going through the newspaper archive at Find My Past a few days ago when I was delighted to find articles which included the names of some of my husband's ancestors. When I looked closer, however, I discovered that his grandfather was an army deserter in the late 18oos and his great grandfather was taken to court for assulting his wife. I have now found more things about other members of the family.
I haven't told my husband yet. I'm wondering if I should. This isn't some distant ancestor it's his grandfather and great grandfather and, of course, they are our children's ancestors too.
I don't want to judge but they do sound a bit like the Victorian equivalent of those problem families you read about in The Sun!
The ironic thing is that my husband's father was very proud of his service in the army as a reservist and in World War 2.
Am I taking this too seriously? It wouldn't be so bad if it was just one person but so far there are at least 4 members of the family who have been in court for everything from embezzling their employer to petty larceny and being drunk and disorderly. 

Sylvia

[alpinecottage]

I wouldn't worry too much.  It seems as though your husband and his father were/are good members of the community and army desertion and being drunk and disorderly aren't genetic after all.  If anything, you should be proud that the recent generations have come through from a disadvantaged background to be law abiding citizens.

One of my great grandfathers was done for assaulting a policeman yet his own father, (my great great grandfather) was a policeman!  As far as I know, none of the descendants has subsequently assaulted anyone!  Tis a bit of a shock when you discover things like that though! 

[JenB]

Please don't worry about it. You aren't responsible for your ancestors 

[Erato]

With enough searching, anyone will find some black sheep among the ancestors.  There's nothing to worry about; these things are not hereditary.

[Meezer]

Adds a bit of spice and fleshes people out as "real" characters! I've found out stuff about some of my lot who were watermen that makes me think they wouldn't have been the sort you wanted to meet on a dark night - I've turned out ok though and haven't yet fallen drunk into any docks!!

[groom]

Adds a bit of spice and fleshes people out as "real" characters!

Certainly does. As yet I haven't found any scandal or crimes in my family, I wish I had as it would make things a bit more interesting. I know people in Australia are delighted when they find that they have ancestors who were transported from the UK as convicts.

Please don't worry about it, Sylvia - your husband isn't responsible for the actions of his ancestors and who knows why they acted as they did. I think we have to accept that if we start digging into the past we may find out some things that make us a bit uncomfortable.

[Gadget]

Here's one - my in laws really enjoyed it as I was able to provide newspaper reports.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=301732.msg1837097#msg1837097

Gadget

[mofid42]

I always thought my lot were all rather boring and law abiding until I started searching the newspapers and discovered several who were done for being drunk and disorderly....and that's just the woman!
I've now got a string of black sheep. Mostly for things like poaching, although I did find one that was arrested for stealing cabbages from a neighbours garden.
However I do have a couple of more serious cases. One was a woman who murdered her own child but reading through the report in the newspapers, her story was very sad.
But by far the worst was a man who employed children to work on his farm and was notorious for treating them very badly. He's the only one I would gladly disown, the rest I see it as a small peep into their personalities and/or maybe the way they dealt with the conditions they lived through at the time.

[lilyJ]

I had been researching my ancestors and just couldn't get my kids or my neices and nephews interested in family history. All I got was the eye rolls and yawns and mutterings along the line of "all you care about is dead rellies".

 Then I asked them "What would it take to get you interested in your family history?

They replied "find us a criminal"

So I spent hours on the black sheep ancestors site, the Old Bailey site, the list of people hanged in Uk, the Australian convict lists, the list of Chartists who were punished, etc etc. No ancestors there.

Finally, when the British Newspapers site came online I found an 1848 article about my ggg grandparents being charged with receiving stolen goods(to wit one roll of damask) at the local police courts.

I proudly announced this to my kids and neices and nephews who were quite delighted.

Then I found the case had been heard at the subsequent quarter session and they were acquitted

My kids and neices and nephews were actually disappointed and lost all further interest in their family history.

There's got to be a lesson in there: I'm just not quite sure what it is!

lilyj