I'm definitely in the "building blocks of history" camp, along with of course the thrill of the hunt. I get most energized when those two interests combine. For instance I recently realized that a whole big limb of my family tree centering in a certain part of the early U.S. during a certain couple of generations is a real-life example of the Albion Seed "borderers" concept in action. Similarly, my own direct ancestors' behavior as serial homesteaders east to west changed my understanding of that whole process in 19th-century America. I've gained a whole new perspective on the Revolutionary War from learning about ancestors who were active grassroots Loyalists as well as those who were on the other side (in the same county, in a couple of cases). Etc.
Every now and then an individual new connection rings that bell, discovery of a past relative who played some unsung role in history. For example I'd never heard of Rev. John Lothropp as an early promoter of the concept of separation of church and state, until arriving at him as an ancestor and then reading about his interesting life. I was delighted to discover that the Remingtons who got the family company to manufacture the very first typewriters are cousins of mine, and enjoyed learning about that. A relative named Abraham Brower is known among transit geeks as the person who established the first actual transit service in the western hemisphere. Recently I learned of a cousin who is one of Hollywood's most celebrated film editors (3 Oscars so far!). Etc.
Possibly my all-time favorite such cousin thus far discovered is this guy:
I also enjoy (maybe because it does retain listener attention at parties) learning that Benedict Arnold is a cousin to me twice over, Lizzie Borden is a cousin, also the chief prosecutor of the Salem witch trials....then there's the early-New England X-greats uncle of mine who was convicted and hung for supposedly murdering his mother who was one of my grandmothers (Rebecca Briggs); etc.
I actually ran down one particularly salacious piece of family gossip from 1920s Kansas and proved it true -- turned out it had been literal front-page news in certain towns for a year or so!
A few years ago I started just for my own amusement a running Word document of "famous and infamous relations". I do add to it the FDRs and Mark Twains and the like but only briefly; where I do some bits of writing (micro-blogging perhaps?) is about the Remingtons and those Loyalists, the Aaron Burrs father and son, and the woman who founded the Girl Scouts, the last Dutch Reformed minister in New York who preached in Dutch, etc. People never widely known or no longer widely known.
That rambling document is approaching 20 pages now and I send it around to my siblings and cousins once a year or so. Some of them get a kick out of it and it's definitely the most likely thing to inspire any of them to remember their logins and do some poking around in my TNG website.
Though honestly I get way more pleasure out of adding to it than anybody else does from reading it....addicts, yep we are.
Completely agreed. Genealogy gives you access to the wild, overgrown paths of history. Interesting stories that nobody's paying attention to. Not enough historians in the world to give them the attention they deserve. One of my favorite things is to seek out odd and unexpected connections between my ancestors and those of my wife, other family, or friends. Were our great-great-grandmothers ever in the same room together? That sort of thing. Of course, the farther back you go that sort of thing becomes not only expected, but inevitable.
One of my favorite examples: my wife's step-3xgreat-grandparents and my 4x great-grandfather lived in the same Lower East Side building in 1850, and appear only five names apart on the 1850 census. Recent enough that it's still a bit incredible.
My wife is a Rev Lothrop descendant as well, through a few lines. Have you ever been to see his Bible on Cape Cod? E.B. Grandin seems fascinating--that must have been no easy decision, speaking of bibles.
I have many favorite cousins (addict!), but this guy is coming to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harden-Hickey. He married my second cousin several times removed. A totally bizarre character.
Okay so this exchange helped inspire me to convert my running list of interesting [to me at least] historical oddities that I've yet found myself connected to, into a Medium post.
Even figured out how to put in internal links so that readers [my own cousins and siblings basically, though anybody's welcome] can browse and poke around the tome. Also figured out how to drop in a few photos and put a circus-poster type graphic up as a headline. What, I've had worse spring breaks....
By way of a tiny thank-you for so motivating me, I've quoted you and cited you in the footnotes. See footnote 49 down in the "A Family Story Proved True" section.
P.S. and below is my new email signature of which I am possibly a little bit proud:
Like you, I'm an addict. Ask me a question and I'm off researching till 2 am. And while I failed to get my husband and children hooked, I'm working on my grand children. We've had Sunday dinner with the family for years and it occurred to me, my grand children knew everyone was family, but they didn't really understand.
So I gave a family history lesson. I put my arm around their father and said, "This is my baby." Then I put my arm around my other son and explained, "This is my baby and your father's brother, just like you [age 9] and [age 7] are brothers." When my mom came to visit, "This is my mommy. I'm her baby." I didn't go very far with the big family get together, "This is Grandpa's brother." But then I had several adults come up and ask how they and their children were related to the others in the room - "1st cousins, 1x removed and removed just means you're in different generations." I keep it short and sweet so the family is intrigued and don't run and hide when they see me coming.
Short and sweet is key. You don't want to be the family bore who goes off about the Revolutionary War at the drop of a hat. I try to keep things interesting so the family will be intrigued and have more questions. But to some extent you either have it or you don't.
I'm definitely in the "building blocks of history" camp, along with of course the thrill of the hunt. I get most energized when those two interests combine. For instance I recently realized that a whole big limb of my family tree centering in a certain part of the early U.S. during a certain couple of generations is a real-life example of the Albion Seed "borderers" concept in action. Similarly, my own direct ancestors' behavior as serial homesteaders east to west changed my understanding of that whole process in 19th-century America. I've gained a whole new perspective on the Revolutionary War from learning about ancestors who were active grassroots Loyalists as well as those who were on the other side (in the same county, in a couple of cases). Etc.
Every now and then an individual new connection rings that bell, discovery of a past relative who played some unsung role in history. For example I'd never heard of Rev. John Lothropp as an early promoter of the concept of separation of church and state, until arriving at him as an ancestor and then reading about his interesting life. I was delighted to discover that the Remingtons who got the family company to manufacture the very first typewriters are cousins of mine, and enjoyed learning about that. A relative named Abraham Brower is known among transit geeks as the person who established the first actual transit service in the western hemisphere. Recently I learned of a cousin who is one of Hollywood's most celebrated film editors (3 Oscars so far!). Etc.
Possibly my all-time favorite such cousin thus far discovered is this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._B._Grandin
I also enjoy (maybe because it does retain listener attention at parties) learning that Benedict Arnold is a cousin to me twice over, Lizzie Borden is a cousin, also the chief prosecutor of the Salem witch trials....then there's the early-New England X-greats uncle of mine who was convicted and hung for supposedly murdering his mother who was one of my grandmothers (Rebecca Briggs); etc.
I actually ran down one particularly salacious piece of family gossip from 1920s Kansas and proved it true -- turned out it had been literal front-page news in certain towns for a year or so!
A few years ago I started just for my own amusement a running Word document of "famous and infamous relations". I do add to it the FDRs and Mark Twains and the like but only briefly; where I do some bits of writing (micro-blogging perhaps?) is about the Remingtons and those Loyalists, the Aaron Burrs father and son, and the woman who founded the Girl Scouts, the last Dutch Reformed minister in New York who preached in Dutch, etc. People never widely known or no longer widely known.
That rambling document is approaching 20 pages now and I send it around to my siblings and cousins once a year or so. Some of them get a kick out of it and it's definitely the most likely thing to inspire any of them to remember their logins and do some poking around in my TNG website.
Though honestly I get way more pleasure out of adding to it than anybody else does from reading it....addicts, yep we are.
Completely agreed. Genealogy gives you access to the wild, overgrown paths of history. Interesting stories that nobody's paying attention to. Not enough historians in the world to give them the attention they deserve. One of my favorite things is to seek out odd and unexpected connections between my ancestors and those of my wife, other family, or friends. Were our great-great-grandmothers ever in the same room together? That sort of thing. Of course, the farther back you go that sort of thing becomes not only expected, but inevitable.
One of my favorite examples: my wife's step-3xgreat-grandparents and my 4x great-grandfather lived in the same Lower East Side building in 1850, and appear only five names apart on the 1850 census. Recent enough that it's still a bit incredible.
My wife is a Rev Lothrop descendant as well, through a few lines. Have you ever been to see his Bible on Cape Cod? E.B. Grandin seems fascinating--that must have been no easy decision, speaking of bibles.
I have many favorite cousins (addict!), but this guy is coming to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harden-Hickey. He married my second cousin several times removed. A totally bizarre character.
Okay so this exchange helped inspire me to convert my running list of interesting [to me at least] historical oddities that I've yet found myself connected to, into a Medium post.
Even figured out how to put in internal links so that readers [my own cousins and siblings basically, though anybody's welcome] can browse and poke around the tome. Also figured out how to drop in a few photos and put a circus-poster type graphic up as a headline. What, I've had worse spring breaks....
https://tinyurl.com/infamousrelations
By way of a tiny thank-you for so motivating me, I've quoted you and cited you in the footnotes. See footnote 49 down in the "A Family Story Proved True" section.
P.S. and below is my new email signature of which I am possibly a little bit proud:
--
Felons, pirates and traitors!
https://tinyurl.com/infamousrelations
"Do it and be damned!" -- cousin Gideon Olmstead (1748-1845)
Great document, Paul! Your family of the future will be glad to have it. I had no idea Shirley Temple's daughter was in the Melvins.
Like you, I'm an addict. Ask me a question and I'm off researching till 2 am. And while I failed to get my husband and children hooked, I'm working on my grand children. We've had Sunday dinner with the family for years and it occurred to me, my grand children knew everyone was family, but they didn't really understand.
So I gave a family history lesson. I put my arm around their father and said, "This is my baby." Then I put my arm around my other son and explained, "This is my baby and your father's brother, just like you [age 9] and [age 7] are brothers." When my mom came to visit, "This is my mommy. I'm her baby." I didn't go very far with the big family get together, "This is Grandpa's brother." But then I had several adults come up and ask how they and their children were related to the others in the room - "1st cousins, 1x removed and removed just means you're in different generations." I keep it short and sweet so the family is intrigued and don't run and hide when they see me coming.
Short and sweet is key. You don't want to be the family bore who goes off about the Revolutionary War at the drop of a hat. I try to keep things interesting so the family will be intrigued and have more questions. But to some extent you either have it or you don't.