Today, I am thinking out loud, actually, virtually. I wonder if other genealogists think this way. We all have our projects and our own way of working. Do you get mentally involved with the people you focus on?
I am a genealogist. In my online family tree, I have thousands of names. Only a few are direct ancestors; the rest are collateral lines - aunts and uncles and cousins to some degree; greats and grands . I can't possibly develop feelings for all of them.
Do I judge them? I try very hard not to; and even harder not to write about any judgemental feelings that crop into my head. Sometimes it's impossible, but mostly, I try, in my writing, to stick to the facts. After all, I wasn't there.
Do I get emotionally involved? You betcha! It's not like my relationship with my four grandparents who all lived to a ripe old age. After all, I sat on their laps, ate at their tables, played with my cousins in their yards. I went to their funerals. I visit their burial grounds and remember. I chat about them with my Mum, my siblings, and my cousins. Those feelings are real, and generally happy, thankfully.
So, how do I describe my relationship with my ancestor who died in 1674 or 1675? Do I love him? Like him? I think it is different with each ancestor. I know absolutely nothing about Francis Holmes's wife, and I call her Mother Holmes just so she has a name, albeit generic. I don't feel for her like I do him. I am sad that I know nothing about her, but it's a fleeting sadness. It comes only when I'm studying Francis and his four children and she,whoever she was, crops us as wife and mother. Francis is real to me. I think I love him.
Why?
I do not have the answer to that question. I seek the answer. I write this because the answer may come to me as a result of my pondering.
What do I know about Francis Holmes?
He was born circa 1600 in England, probably in Yorkshire. No firm sources, but likely true.
First mention I have found of him is in the Stamford, CT, town records, 1648. He was the night watchman on duty, and a drunken neighbour, Robert Penoyer, beat him in the face. Bloodied him. This was witnessed by Francis Bell.
He had four children: I've researched them but haven't written too much about them yet. They are in queue.
He was the village blacksmith; perhaps the only one for some time.
He served as a watchman and a fence viewer. Town responsibilities changed; I think, annually.
He was charged and fined once for intoxication. Puritans drank alcoholic beverages; the crime was drinking to excess and public intoxication.
He had a servant named Cornelius Hunt; he left him some shillings in his will.
I have transcribed his will and probate and I'm working on his inventory. By comparing his inventory to those of others in the town, I believe he'd be what we'd call middle class. Some had a lesser value than his; some, higher. I know all the items in his house except his wife's clothing.
I know from his will that he considered what belonged to his wife - her clothing and her inheritance from her late husband - as his own.
The Holmes name was respected in the town.
That's it. So why do I love him? Was he pleasant? funny? warm and fuzzy? unpleasant? grumpy?
I don't know. Perhaps, had I known him, I wouldn't have liked him. Since I don't know, I believe I choose to love him. If I knew he was nasty or grumpy, I'd still have an emotional tie, perhaps of dislike, to him.
Here's some thoughts that come to mind.
I believe in the science of DNA. I believe I am knit together with strands of the DNA of my ancestors. Each cell contains more or less of each of them. Francis is a part of my being - likeable or not.
I have spent many hours, especially this past year, researching his life and that of his children. Although what I know isn't personal like sitting on his lap as a child or watching him at the forge, I still know facts about him.
I have been to a blacksmith's shop at Kings Landing and watched a blacksmith at work.
It's in my nature to like people until and unless they rub me the wrong way.
Is that it? Is that enough? I want to know.
The list above - what I know about Francis Holmes, will form the basis for my writing about him during Lynn Palermo's February Family History Writing workshop. I've received my orders. This is part of my preparation to sit down and write for 28 days. My intent is to finish my rough draft, using the above list. I need to refer to and write down each mention of Francis in the town records and to finish his inventory by the end of January, and have it beside me so I don't spend time in research. What I don't know, I'll look for in March. The finished story will be part of my family history project.
I took the photo at Kings Landing in 2011.
This is new to me, so bare with me! Peg, I think I understand your qustion about the connections to an ancestor. When they are names are dates, they are "flat". With your research, you have added the "bones and flesh" as you once said, you've put them in to an historical context, and you've made them three (or four?) dimentional. I feel a connection to Francis because of you, even though I am not of his lineage. I wish there were information on his wife to add antoher dimension to his life. In that time, it was normal for the husband to claim everything of his wife's as his own (there is a dowry exception of some sort) so that is not surprising. But you have seen a working forge, you've seen spinning wheels and other tools they would have used. You have made Francis come alive for us, and I thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteBones and flesh, historical context, and multi-dimensional. Thanks for your thoughts, Jeanni.
ReplyDelete