Genealogy-more

Genealogy – more

My earlier comment about Scandinavian ancestry has been corrected. Ancestry continually update their DNA records and the latest information is that I’m pretty much 100% English. I don’t know whether to be pleased or not.

My distant cousin, Marion, is a genealogical fanatic. Now retired she appears to spend almost all her time researching our family history. She is descended from one of the brothers at the sale of the Fradswell farm and I’m from another. It is the third who was the most successful eventually having a mini mansion near Fradswell.

There is, I suppose, some comfort in knowing I come from good yeoman stock. As I said previously our records fade away beyond the 16^th century. There is a hint that our name derives from the Norman French le Hore. People of that name did arrive with the Norman conquest and did settle in N Staffordshire. However this is essentially speculation and we will never really know.

Marion visited us recently and I was hoping she would be able to give me more insight into the meaning of my DNA results. Other than identifying my nearest DNA contacts as folk with whom she already had contact she is pretty  much as puzzled as I am. She was however more  able to help Annette.

Annette is curious about a relative who emigrated to America about 1880. Marion was able to show us how to track him via US census records. As is typical of families of that era there are many children and the trail has run cold for the present.

Annette’s father was the youngest in his family. Her aunt married a Canadian soldier after WW1 and went to Canada. She is now deceased but there were contacts until quite recently. We also had an Australian contact although the Australian person has now died and we haven’t tracked any descendants.

While tracking ancient genealogy is reasonably interesting they are largely names and dates and we know little about the people and their life. It is the more recent where we have some reasonable chance of discovering more about the person. The very frustrating part is that my parents sometimes talked of their relatives and antecedent’s. As a child and young man this rolled over me but how I wish now that I could have them back for even half a day to hear those stories again.

It was particularly in wartime that otherwise ordinary people did extraordinary things. My aunt Win who had not long obtained her nursing qualification was driving an ambulance in the Coventry blitz. Annette’s uncle drove a bulldozer constructing airfields for the US during the Pacific campaign. I would love to know where, and how this came about, but everyone who might have known is now dead.

My family after  very large families in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries contracted right down. I have only 3 living cousins on my father’s side and one of those has no family. My mother’s side is even worse with only two living cousins and again one with no family.

I have a slight hope that our grandchildren will find our research interesting. I fear it won’t be until their middle age before they discover their interest which will be too late for me. I am just slightly disappointed that our children now take only a minimal polite interest.

Genuine note to milkman

Dear Milkman. I’ve just had a baby. Please leave another one.