Scandals and surprises

[PennineWayinSlingbacks]

I've been dipping in and out of my family history for years and I'm seriously thinking I should write a book.

I keep thinking of Michael Parkinson and how he was dropped from 'Who do you think you are?' because they couldn't find enough material for an episode. I could fill an entire series, the revelations keep coming - the accidental shooting was only discovered this week. Some highlights are below. Has anyone else had any similar surprises?

Suicide (×2), including dismemberment under a train
Infanticide
Bestiality (x2)
Long term criminal career including prison with hard labour
Manslaughter charge after accidental shooting
Reform school
Death in childbirth
Death in blitz - whilst walking a baby in the park, baby also died
First world war killed in action (2), one only 9 months after marriage
Death from Spanish flu, leaving orphans (2)
First World War flying ace
Light house keeper in New England
Illegitimacy
Adultery with a cousin, who had been a lodger in the family home
Remarriage three months after widowhood
Clerk to poor law union, overseeing workhouse

All sound like episodes of Eastenders op!

The bestiality conviction was a bit of an eye opener!

Hopefully it wasn't actually in an eye!

Sorry not funny at all
..

I’d be absolutely fascinated by detailed psychobiographies of their descendants, those events are all so utterly horrifying. Is it epigenetics, the handing down of trauma in DNA? Are these your direct ancestors?

There was much more upsetting stuff than I expected throughout the tree, sometimes at population level (ancestry and now MyHeritage both have genetic groups alongside the ethnicity admixture thing) where you can trace the movements of migratory ancestors around the world either fleeing persecution or in search of opportunities or whatever. At individual level there is heartbreaking stuff that explains a lot but it’s my grandparents’ generation (so it feels a bit too close to be all oooh scandal) and there’s a direct line of intense suffering and suicides leading right to me. It’s one way of making some sense of the inexplicable anyway!

One of my ancestors was murdered.

Another one was a servant and was impregnated by His Lordship's son; they threw her out and sent her to the workhouse to give birth.

I'll have to get back into my research. I haven't done much for about 10 years, there's probably loads more information out there now.

Fascinating yet really awful and upsetting at the same time.

Yes why not write a book and have a foreword written by a trauma specialist... It might help you make sense of it all.

Yeah I found suicide, arson, DV, alcoholism, the workhouse, being bombed. It helped me to better understand why my DPs were traumatised and so therefore why I was. I wish I'd known sooner though, I didn't find out most of this until my DF died so I couldn't ask any more.