How to reconcile with the past?

[coombs]

Makes me wonder how many of my male ancestors were domestic abusers. I do have an ancestor's sister in rural Suffolk who appeared in the newspapers after being abused by her husband. Also my ancestor Richard Richardson (1848-1930) once got tried for assaulting his sister in law in 1870.

[Stanwix England]

Makes me wonder how many of my male ancestors were domestic abusers.

I have at least one, as he went to court for it. He was described by the authorities as being particularly bad, which considering how low the bar was in his day is pretty depressing. He was also involved in other criminal activity and was a bigamist.

I feel very impressed by his sons, who seem not to have followed in his footsteps. They all seem to have established themselves in respectable jobs and have no criminal convictions.

But as you say, there is so much that we'll never see, because it's not on paper.

[BumbleB]

I have a distant relative who obtained a divorce against her ex-husband.   He was accused of desertion, ill-treatment and beating.  She obtained, with the help of her father, a divorce in 1873.  Both parities re-married - she as a Divorced Woman, and he as a Widower - AND he was a Police Officer! 

[DianaCanada]

The worst crimes I have found in my family were committed against my relatives by a stepfather and a husband (The first what was considered rape by the courts and he went to prison, although in later years they lived together as a couple, and the second was infanticide by the father who had recently returned from WW1 and was suffering from what is now considered PTSD.). The newspaper reports were certainly crucial in providing information.
My 2x Gr grandmother tried to commit suicide after her father died, but failed.  A great-great uncle succeeded by using a tool that was used to “humanely” kill livestock for food sales.
My one amusing crime case was a relative’s wife who was in court for telling fortunes in her flat.  She was fined.  Oh, and another one, a blood relative and former policeman who was selling beer without a license.  He was a very interesting character who was involved in many things that got him in the papers.  Still don’t know if the woman he arrested named Martha Carter was the same Martha Carter he later married!

[Kingsclere]

Obviously she wasn't very good at it!   

My one amusing crime case was a relative’s wife who was in court for telling fortunes in her flat.  She was fined. 

[DianaCanada]

Obviously she wasn't very good at it!   

My one amusing crime case was a relative’s wife who was in court for telling fortunes in her flat.  She was fined. 

Oh, good one! Didn’t even think of that!
The newspaper report included that she’d brought her baby to court - I’ve never been able to find him after he appeared in a census as a young adult.

[Rena]

It's not surprising that some of our ancestors weren't as pure as the driven snow considering the circumstances they lived in.

It was far better to drink mead and ale/beer than pure water,  water was often contaminated by animals defecating faeces in the streams and factories discharging chemicals into local waterways.   

Old directories show that often there was more than one beer house in a street, thus If was very easy in that era to be an alcoholic.

Then there were hatters using mercury in their trade (hence the term "mad as a hatter")

Napoleon often accused the English of poisoning him, which was denied at the time.

Eventually it was discovered that the green paint in his house was the cause:- 

During his exile on St. Helena, Napoleon resided in a house in which the rooms were painted bright green, his favorite color. The cause of his death is generally believed to have been stomach cancer, and arsenic exposure has been linked to an increased risk of gastric carcinoma. Analysis of samples of his hair revealed significant amounts of arsenic.[13] As St. Helena has a rather damp climate, it is likely that fungus grew on the walls. It has also been suggested that the presence of such abnormally high levels of arsenic might be due to attempts at preserving his body.[28] However, more recent research has proven this theory to be false, and Napoleon did indeed die of stomach cancer.

[BumbleB]

Sorry about this BUT:

Are we really trying to say that past generations were worse than the current one?  Not very sure that I would agree with that 

I'm basically very glad that I was born in the 1940's and grew up in the 1950's and 1960's.  I would definitely not like to be young today!

[Erato]

Nope.