Chris Paton explains how archived records of misfortune and crisis can reveal a great deal about our ancestors’ lives
CHRIS PATON is a genealogist, tutor and blogger, and writes about the Highland Clearances on page 54
Thanks to the creation of online family history databases, it has never been so easy to identify records of births, marriages and deaths, as well as censuses, which provide snapshots depicting an individual moment in our ancestors’ lives. However, each of our forebears will have experienced a lifetime of challenges, fortunes and adversity. As such, there may be more to be discovered concerning them than the records of such instances can reveal. In particular, one area that can be potentially fruitful for our research is that of the crisis scenarios endured by our relations, because more often than not there was somebody standing close by with a quill and ink, ready to preserve the details.
Our ancestors were no different to us in experiencing hardship at times, and although we may wish the best for them as their descendants, we may need to remove our rose-tinted glasses to get to the truths and consequences of their actual lives as lived. Within the family environment, for example, there may have been many dramas. Children may have died in infancy.
Some may have been born illegitimately, carrying what society defined as a stigma throughout their lives, or may have been conceived as a result of rape. Others may have been abandoned as foundlings or given up for adoption, losing any sense of their original identity. For those who later married, there may have been strains on their relationships, affairs, separations, divorce, or a lifetime of misery in a loveless union. Our gay ancestors may have lived their lives in fear of the death penalty, perhaps marrying to hide their sexuality, with some being discovered and prosecuted.
Crime And Punishment
In a society where the rule of law dominated, our relations may have fallen victim to crime, or may have been the criminals. They may have sought retribution in the courts, or faced prosecution – and if found guilty, may have been imprisoned, transported or executed. For those found innocent, a stigma may still have followed a trial, with society continuing to shun them in its aftermath. Others may have been accused of vile acts or misdemeanours as a form of defamation, and punished for incidents for which they were entirely innocen
