Balancing A Family Tree

[Siely]

For people with working class backgrounds (like me) family trees can be full of historical and political conflicts.  Norman vs saxon, catholic vs protestant , royalist vs parliament, trade vs profession , tory vs whig, christian vs pagan, town vs country, grammar school vs comprehensive , are all found in our tree.
Somebody ought to have reminded me about all this before I started (I'm not very politically-minded).
So any novice (like me) who is about to start please bear these conflicts in mind.

[Erato]

What's the problem and why is it specifically a working class problem?  I cherish every little scrap of information which sheds light on the political, religious or cultural outlook of my ancestors.  That's the interesting stuff but it's some of the hardest information to come by.  I search the newspapers especially for letters to the editor which reveal them in their own words.  For example,

"Dear Editor:  In Saturday's Constitution-Tribune my name was on the list of Democratic judges for the August 7 primary. I am not and never have been a Democrat, Please make correction.  Waldo W. Chapman."

[Zaphod99]

I really don't see what problem there is with conflicts in families, nor why they should be a surprise. Just think back to your own celebrations over Christmas. It's very hard to get everybody to agree on the same thing!  It's these differences that make any history-related interest so engrossing.  And then add sporting differences as well.

On another topic I was recently researching, (how many countries with a shared border have never been at war with each other), and basically Spain and Portugal have always got on quite well and Norway and Sweden likewise, but just about every other border on the planet has been fought over throughout history.  It made me realise that rivalry at every level is part of life.

That original list is quite sparse.  Meanwhile, here, people can't even agree over genealogy!

Zaph

[Top-of-the-hill]

  There isn't much conflict in my family tree - ordinary to the point of boring! It has never worried me as I was fairly sure of my solid peasant background. The most interesting thing I have found was a will from 1652 of a probable ancestor who was a fairly wealthy tenant farmer.

[Siely]

I'm simply making a "lighter side" comment that family history research may yield things that one doesn't like as well as finding out more about one's history.   

[MollyC]

The Christmas dinner table encounter I would have wished to see was if my mother's great grandfather, a pillar of the abstinance movement, had ever sat opposite my father's grandfather, a wine merchant.

The wine merchant's grandfather was a soldier, and in 1811 he crossed one of your peaceful borders, at Fuentes d'Onoro.  The Portuguese, the Spanish and the British were all trying to kick Napoleon's forces out of Iberia.

It takes all sorts, to build a family tree.

[GrahamSimons]

Just one of the areas of conflict that has affected my family is the English Civil War. Families fought among themselves and the damage caused in all sorts of ways was enormous. (One source suggests that the death toll as a proportion of the population was double that of World War I). Family legend (perhaps) has it that my 9-greats grandfather was killed in battle for the Royalists; yet his children and grandchildren seem to have done pretty well under the Commonwealth. Unfortunately there aren't many reliable records of individuals and my understanding is patchy. I've been reading accounts of the war and am gradually becoming better informed in general terms, if not on family detail; allegedly the family Bible was destroyed by 2-greats grandmother.

[Erato]

I have at least two direct line ancestors who fought in the American Revolutionary War on the American side - gggg-grandfather John Ware and ggggg-grandfather Amos Davis.  Were there any on the British side?  I don't know, but I'll keep searching on and off.  I'd really like to find one.

My ggg-grandfather David Waire fought on the American side in the War of 1812, and family legend has it that gg-grandfather Robert Logan's older brother fought on the British side.  I tend to believe this legend because it comes from my grandmother.  The Logans were her family, and her information has almost always proved to be accurate.  But I don't even know the brother's name, so I haven't been able to get anywhere with it.  It would be interesting to find out whether they ever faced off against each other or that the Logan brother was one of the sappers who ate the dinner prepared for President Madison in the White House and then set the building on fire.

The Civil War was famous for pitting brother against brother, but not in my family.  Everyone involved in the war fought in the Union Army.

[Biggles50]

There is not much you can do, its history, it happened.

Glean every bit of information and include it in the Tree.

Go far enough back and you may find on one branch a family member who was hung drawn and quartered and on another branch the person who accused them is also a direct family member.

BTW this is not fictitious, both are in my Wife’s tree as is a member of a family who were persecuted and one beheaded because of their Catholic faith.

In my tree I have a 3xGreat Uncle who was sentenced to death twice.

2xGreat Grandfather was killed by a train whilst he was working in the depot marshalling yards.

My own Grandfather at the age of 18 emigrated to Canada as part of the ill equipped Barr Pioneers.

It is all your own history, embrace it, the good, the bad and where on earth did the forename Freefall come from?