How important to you is "your lineage" ?

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Before I started this journey, I didn't really have any interest, but discovering what I have I've realised the importance of knowing "where I came from".

My family growing up was always very family orientated, there'd be regular family events - bbqs, day trips even holidays together.

I never thought much of it as a kid, until I realised (recently) that it was because the families didn't really exist or function as a family before my parent's generation.

On both sides they did as much family orientated things as they could & continue to do. (eg, both sets of grandparents organising easter egg hunts for the grandkids).

From discovering how the family dynamics worked in past generations, I can see that it has affected greatly how we were brought up & how we bring up our kids.

thadiisgirl

My roots and lineage are becoming increasingly important to me as I get older. I feel like I want to know about my about my forebears lives, their trials and tribulations - the mundane, everyday stuff. Yet I'd also love to discover exactly why certain events took place - not that far out of living memory either - but I do accept I'll never really know, sadly.

What I have learned, by going back in time, is that we often don't appreciate the wonderful memories and minds of our loved ones until they've gone. I'd give anything top go back and talk to my Grandma, born in 1888 but still going strong until I was 11/12...

One of my main reasons for joining this board was to feel connected to my past - and maybe there is a small chance I may find someone related to me !

Having said that - it is also interesting and informative, so I'll be sticking around - long lost rellys or not!

smokingman

A great aunt on my dads side did a genealogy study on our family a few years ago. She was a nun who had nothing better to do .
Anyhoo, she got the lineage back to the 1400s in the Netherlands and the book she produced was pretty facinating.

I learned that my family was once landlords of large parts of Westmeath and I had a great, great uncle that died after winning/cheating a poker game in Chicago in the late 1800s. There was loads more but they're the two that stood out for me.

Makes me proud to be who I am as a result of knowing more about my ancestors and would highly recommend everyone to find out as much as they can about their own, if even to give your own life more context.

nesbitt

thadiisgirl wrote: »

I'd give anything top go back and talk to my Grandma, born in 1888 but still going strong until I was 11/12...

I am similar in that my Granny born in 1896 died aged 97. She would tell you about going to a 'hedge school', never learning Irish (not allowed), first hand account black & tan atrocities, a scathing dislike of priests but great love of 'the poor Claires', leaving Ireland age 20 for USA but returning when 24 (approx) as 'she and Paddy (love of her life) just couldn't settle there'!

A lady ahead of her time with a dry wit.

I too wish I could go back and talk to her and ask so many questions.

se conman

One of the biggest regrets of mine is not haven recorded tales from my grandmother born1905 , lived through every aspect of modern Irish history and still alive. I feel now that it would be too hard on her to put her through the effort of recounting her and Ireland's past.

owenc

Its very important to me as it feels as that is what i have sort of came from, when you look at the way we act and the way we talk you can really see how things have been passed down the lines its amazing... i feel sort of connected to the people that i found its very weird and hard to explain but you should get what i mean.. and i always wonder what they would think of us LOL! Me and my family have been doing a family tree for about three years now and we are all wondering if they would actually care about us or what they'd think about us.. I love it as you get to find out interesting things and some scandels which went on over the years!?! :eek: Its great seeing what their occupations were and how much money they had etc LOL.. :P i actually wish i had lived here in the 1700s (i liked the way all the country people stuck together and everyone knew each other etc, its still like that here but its nowhere near as close at all!) its a pity theres no places were you can go to get a feel of what it is like. Its kind of creepy aswell because apparently i look like g g grandparents which is kinda scary as its really creepy when you see the looks skipping a generation.. Some of the scandals where very sad as-well really really bad.. The people who have seen people from the 1800s are very very lucky people my age can now only see people from the 1900s which is very sad i have often wondered what people then would've spoken like and what dressed etc..

owenc

se conman wrote: »

One of the biggest regrets of mine is not haven recorded tales from my grandmother born1905 , lived through every aspect of modern Irish history and still alive. I feel now that it would be too hard on her to put her through the effort of recounting her and Ireland's past.

Ano thats depressing we started our family tree just one year after my granda died who was born about 1920 (very old) and it was kinda sad because we could've asked him all this information but now hes dead so we can't and it would've been exciting to tell him about all the scandals and stuff like that.... plus we have went to his brothers and sisters and they have told us very little and we think they know something but they won't tell us!? Why do old people have to be like that! :mad: They have actually been very rude about it and were asking us why we were doing a family tree it was very upsetting.. It actually turns out aswell that my g grandmother didn't tell my grandfather or his brothers and sisters something which caused my gg uncle to move to america which proves how secret they were... Just on that but this may be a very sensitive question but if you grandmother is alive please please ask please its worth a try if you don't do it you'll regret it seriously you could find out some really good info that you can't get online!

Dun

The surname in question didn't begin with "Bo" did it? Just I heard a very similar story recently from someone who is from near enough your neck of the woods.

later12

se conman wrote: »

One of the biggest regrets of mine is not haven recorded tales from my grandmother born1905 , lived through every aspect of modern Irish history and still alive. I feel now that it would be too hard on her to put her through the effort of recounting her and Ireland's past.

That is a pity. I would recommend that anyone who is interested in the history of Ireland, and particularly its social history, document the memories of any grandparents who survive or even parents.

In the 1960s my father recorded interviews with his grandmother (b. 1885) and his mother (b. 1919). The memories of my great grandmother were particularly chilling. Her family had farmed during the famine and she lost her first husband during the Great War, she was a Quaker of the old tradition and knew ancestors who still wore the old modest Quaker dress in her childhood. Nevertheless she recalled a very liberal Ireland whereby some of her friends were divorcees, and how this all changed when Ireland became more conservative in the 1920s. For her this social change was far more relevant than politics, because that was something abstract and faraway for people of her age. She was much less politicised, except on the issue of the civil war and war of independence, on which she (being a mother in her early forties, had strong feelings). It was interesting to us that her daughters opinions were far more socially conservative than her own.

At the time, in the 1960s, such memories would not have been particularly hard to find, yet a few decades later our family treat them like a treasure trove. So I would encourage anybody who is interested to get your tape recorder out, or somehow record your forbears, and their memories, because you or your children may be very grateful for them should they survive into the coming century.

On the question of lineage. I dont find lineage relevant or important in itself. It is simply nice to relate our historical knowledge to what our ancestors were doing at that time. For me it is not really about knowing my ancestors names, or family sizes, or social status, but how it all fits in with the broader history.

TheoBane

Myself and two of my aunts have recently done our family tree, which was very long on my father's side. Was able to trace back to Nobility, it was very cool to find the coat of arms of my fathers family. But we did find it really hard, since im Irish/Belgium most of the records in Belgium during the second world war was burned and destroyed. But thankfully we found long distant relatives that actually had archives of family history and diary's, never been more proud of my family and where i have come from.