Genealogy; It Can Fuck With Your Head ....!

For Fuck Sake! I just came across This, on a Genealogists forum. Try this fukka on for size;

" My sisters are also my 8th cousins once removed according to my Family History Software programme. This is because my 8x great-grandfather is also my 7x great-grandfather. He was married three times and the daughter of the son of his second marriage married the grandson of a daughter from his first marriage. Took me ages to work that one out! "

Just doesn't bear thinking about, does it? Computers ~ Who'd have one?

" I Know You're No One ..... "

Someone said that to me, tonight, in e mail. The person saying it was Rosie Smith. She's a daughter of Levi Smith ~ as in ' The Levi Smith '. I don't expect that name means jack to most of you? Probably not. But I've known of the man most of my life. And, earlier tonight, I exchanged a few words with his girl.

Rosie and I both inhabit a Gypsy forum, see? And she got wind of this place and badgered me into telling her where it is. Then, having come here and seen how I go on, she got to thinking I might be one or another other characters she's 'met' on line.

That's how come she threw a couple of suggestions at me, as to my, suspected, 'other' identities. I, of course, disavowed her. Hence the come back titling this post;

" I know you're no one ..... " ('I know, and thought ye might have been, but .....').

But, that got me thinking. Especially as I'd received a fresh batch of Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates in the post today. I was actually sat here, transcribing all the new data onto my Family Tree site when Rosie popped up. Thus I couldn't help but wryly think to myself; " I'm someone, alright. And I'm getting a pretty good idea who too! "

Now, Rosie will 'know who she is'. She can probably reel off both sides of her own family line, by rote. Aunts and Uncles. Who married whom. All their first names. The lot. That's the way with Romanies (Oh. Sorry. Had I not pointed out that Rosie is a full blooded Romany? Well, she very much is) and the Romany people, very much like the Irish, are very much into family lineage.

I am. Only there's barely any bugger left alive who I can ask any more now. So I've had to largely dig back myself. Using various 'pay per view' sites, to access historical records. Then I've spent thousands of pounds ~ quite literally ~ on buying up BMD Certificates, to help me get one parent further back on my own 'Dead Rellies'. It's become, rather ironically, a complete 'Way of Life' with me.

And how about you? Do ye even know ye own Grand Parents first names? Do ye care what Gran'Dad did for a living? What about Gran'Ma's people? What were they like? What did they do? Where did they live? Do these questions make ye shrug and think of going and reading something more interesting and relevant to you?

Funny; Some people are more concerned with the 'Pedigree' of their latest Dog than what they have in their own blood. Where they got it from. How it maybe makes them even do the things they do today.

Oh well. I'm not here to lecture or proselytise about anything. Only, I Do always ~ within reason ~ encourage others to start finding out and getting it down. Even just the generation before you holds So Much.

It's a bastard, when ye turn around to ask them and they're gone.

One Shouldn't Laugh ..... But ....!

Anyone who thinks Genealogy ('Tracing Ye Family Tree') is for dried up old fossils who want to sit in musty Records Offices all day looking for links to aristocracy is completely off planet. Believe me. I know about this. Because, I've been up to my eyeballs in this stuff for years now. It's completely compelling and ye just never know where it'll take ye, or what it'll teach ye next.

And I've just been on a quick tour of the Workhouse's. Grimmest fucking places one could imagine, outside of the Nazi Camps, believe me. And, before ye shrug, sniff and consider such places nothing to do with you? I wouldn't be so smarmy till ye've dug into ye own family history! Only a couple of generations back, things could be a hell of a lot different than today.

Anyway, I've not come here to berate ye. I'm not in that mood. No. My little trip round the hell holes of yesteryear did leave me in tears, in fact. But, suffice to say; It also left my rubber key board running with spat out Stout! I spat the Stout out just before I collapsed into a helpless mess of uncontrollable laughter!

I was looking for some people whose surname began with " Bu... ", see? So, there I am, cruising down these long, alphabetical lists of Inmates names. Concentrating on the later B's, but constantly aware of the categorisations these places put people into. The ones making me start to snigger were; " Idiot ", " Imbecile " and " Lunatic "!

I mean, for fuck sake; It's not bad enough that ye've ended up in there. Now some cunt is arbitrarily labelling ye a fucking " Idiot "! (Ahh, christ! Here I go again! Laughing so hard I can barely see the key board My stomach hurts with it!)

So, there I am, laughing myself into a frenzy about all that ~ yeah; I started tipping the glass a trifle early today. So hot, and it's a sunday ~ when my eye slips off the bottom of the B's and I somehow find myself looking at " Jacob Curtis. Born in Poole. Job; Blacksmith. Condition; Blind!

Sorry. That just did it! Thought of a Blind Blacksmith? How come he wasn't listed as " Lunatic ", or at least " A Complete Fucking Idiot! " as well?!

Oh dear! Now I Must pee!