Nothing of interest in my family tree?

HavingCrack

Apologies if this has appeared before but I can't find a thread if it has been and I'm a newbie to this particular forum.

Anyway, I've managed to get back as far as my great great grandfather on the fraternal side (seems unlikely I'll get much further) but there doesn't appear to be anything of interest. Up until my fathers time every generation appears to have been peasant farmers (for lack of a better description) who do not appear to have done anything noteworthy whatsoever. Is this a relatively common experience in Ireland? I've become a bit disheartened.

TheCatsMeow

Post deleted as per pm request

Moderator

pinkypinky

Of course we all hope for a good scandal. I particularly want there to be bigamy in my family! No good reason for it

But in the end, I just want to know. I don't care what they were - farmers/labourers, the vast majority of everyone's ancestors in every country are going to be agricultural.

zagmund

Agree with pinkypinky - most peoples ancestors will have been ordinary Joe Soaps who lived in the same area their parents lived in, married someone from the area, raised a family in the area, farmed land, paid the landlord, died and were buried.

In terms of recorded history, most people just aren't going to feature anywhere. Births, deaths & marriages will be recorded. Court appearances *may* be recorded in the local papers, but not to a degree that's going to let you determine that the "Joe Soap from Ballysomewhere" who was convicted of stealing 3 chickens in 1905 was your Joe Soap or someone else with the same name in the area.

I think possibly what you may be thinking is "my tree just shows I'm descended from ordinary people" - this is going to be the same for the vast majority of people. This doesn't mean that the individuals weren't interesting.

One thing worth remembering is that d'internet has brought some great opportunities for making links with distant relatives. I've found a few through this forum on Boards, let alone on the other forums out there. Just do occasional searches for "Joe Soap Ballysomewhere" and something will turn up eventually. I don't mean search every day, but every few months go back and do it, vary the search "farmer Ballysomewhere Soap", etc . . .

Maybe your Joes career may have been farming turnips (apologies to modern day turnip farmers, but I had to pick something) but his brother or sisters family line ended up running BP or Enron or something.

Don't give up hope and don't be disheartened.

z

P. Breathnach

I am currently trying to get my head around the life story of my great-great-grandmother: daughter of a rundale farmer, married to son of another rundale farmer living about 100m from her home; had at least four children with him, three born during the famine; widowed about 1850; married again, to another member of the rundale group; more children; survived into her 80s. In all her long life, she seems to have lived in three different houses, all within easy sight of one another. One of those houses is now a tumbledown ruin; one is a shed; the third was occupied until about ten years ago, and is now falling into dereliction.

She was illiterate, and spoke only Irish.

I can walk the roads she walked and see the well from which she almost certainly drew water.

A humble peasant who did nothing noteworthy? In one sense, I'd have to say yes. But uninteresting? Definitely not. Her life experience fed into the life of her daughter, my great-grandmother, whose life in turn shaped the life of my grandfather, and thence my mother.

I inherit genes from her, and there might also be a cultural inheritance.

Coolnabacky1873

Fe-ckin' Who Do You Think You Are has a lot to answer for!

shanew

Coolnabacky1873 wrote: »

Fe-ckin' Who Do You Think You Are has a lot to answer for!

speaking of WDYTYA, I heard that over half of the people they do preliminary research on are rejected since their history is too 'ordinary'!

The two I've heard details of are Michael Parkinson and Ray D'Arcy

I think being a small farmer or labourer and getting at least some of the family through the famine in one piece was a major achievement...


S.

Elizabetha

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I am currently trying to get my head around the life story of my great-great-grandmother: daughter of a rundale farmer, married to son of another rundale farmer living about 100m from her home; had at least four children with him, three born during the famine; widowed about 1850; married again, to another member of the rundale group; more children; survived into her 80s. In all her long life, she seems to have lived in three different houses, all within easy sight of one another. One of those houses is now a tumbledown ruin; one is a shed; the third was occupied until about ten years ago, and is now falling into dereliction.

She was illiterate, and spoke only Irish.

I can walk the roads she walked and see the well from which she almost certainly drew water.

A humble peasant who did nothing noteworthy? In one sense, I'd have to say yes. But uninteresting? Definitely not. Her life experience fed into the life of her daughter, my great-grandmother, whose life in turn shaped the life of my grandfather, and thence my mother.

I inherit genes from her, and there might also be a cultural inheritance.

You really got it in a nutshell there P.breathnach, beautifully said.....

Elizabetha

Yes Shane, well said, for our ancestors to get theie families through the famine and the flu epidemic and all the other obstacles of trying to survive back then was an amazing achievment...

dido2

Not sure about everyone else, but from doing the family tree which hasn't led to anything other than the usual family members going off to war and emigrating, what I've taken from it all is that seeing various information has made me feel so so privileged to be a daughter, wife and mother now rather than in my grand mothers, great grandmothers and great great grandmothers time... how much life for women has changed even the last 50 years alone is a lot but going back 100 or 150 years ago it really does make you think...
Plus even though they all appear to have lived ordinary lives it still does give you a sense of what life was like for them...

Coolnabacky1873

shanew wrote: »

speaking of WDYTYA, I heard that over half of the people they do preliminary research on are rejected since their history is too 'ordinary'!

The two I've heard details of are Michael Parkinson and Ray D'Arcy

I think being a small farmer or labourer and getting at least some of the family through the famine in one piece was a major achievement...


S.

I know some pro's here in the US that have consulted on the American WDYTYA and for every season they have to start out with at least 35 celebs to get enough that have 'interesting' ancestors.

Jellybaby1

Elizabetha wrote: »

Yes Shane, well said, for our ancestors to get theie families through the famine and the flu epidemic and all the other obstacles of trying to survive back then was an amazing achievment...

Yes, and they experienced wars, rebellions, rations, strikes and God knows what else. Not for them the long hours sitting in front of a computer screen! They were strong people those turnip farmers, and our existence proves it. HavingCrack, hope you can just enjoy the searching and your discoveries. Just because you haven't unearthed something interesting doesn't mean to say they weren't interesting people. I do watch WDYTYR but they have forgotten to be genealogists and they just want sensationalism now.

pedroeibar1

Coolnabacky1873 wrote: »

Fe-ckin' Who Do You Think You Are has a lot to answer for!

Agreed, but it is not yet understood that it is ‘entertainment’ and not genealogy. Very same with food programs, they start out with cooking and degenerate into ‘menutainment’. Nobody is going to emulate the better chefs, they just want to watch and say ‘I could do that, it’s easy’. Same with geno on TV, very few are willing to spend hours squinting at the dodgy microfilm of a tattered 1800 register. There also is the prospect of some salacious spice - a drunk/ne’er-do-well/bigamist/wife beater/hero, the feel-good factor of bringing down or identifying with the rich/famous. The WDYTYA series is IMO going downhill fast, the Patrick Stewart program this week was a research job on his father’s military career. Hardly genealogy.

Alicat

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Agreed, but it is not yet understood that it is ‘entertainment’ and not genealogy. Very same with food programs, they start out with cooking and degenerate into ‘menutainment’. Nobody is going to emulate the better chefs, they just want to watch and say ‘I could do that, it’s easy’. Same with geno on TV, very few are willing to spend hours squinting at the dodgy microfilm of a tattered 1800 register. There also is the prospect of some salacious spice - a drunk/ne’er-do-well/bigamist/wife beater/hero, the feel-good factor of bringing down or identifying with the rich/famous. The WDYTYA series is IMO going downhill fast, the Patrick Stewart program this week was a research job on his father’s military career. Hardly genealogy.

+1

I still find it a very interesting and entertaining programme, but I hate when they spend a whole show on one ancestor, just for a story.

To me, Geneaology is about finding all your connections, however exciting or 'boring' your ancestors may be. I love finding someone new to the add to the tree

RGM

zagmund wrote: »

One thing worth remembering is that d'internet has brought some great opportunities for making links with distant relatives.

When I was over to Ireland a couple months ago, I spent an afternoon with the family of a third cousin once removed, including his young children who are my fourth cousins! We may only share a surname and a few genes, but it didn't seem any different than seeing first cousins or aunts or uncles. Family is family and I had a wonderful time and hope to go back.

But getting back to the OP, I think it's a mistake to research your heritage with the intent of finding something "interesting," meaning fame or fortune or scandal. For one thing, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. For another, and maybe this is a bit harsh, but it seems a bit shallow to me. Your ancestors may not have been famous, but they were still people like you and me. They had lives, they lived, and isn't every life interesting in some way? Reading their names in a census might not be interesting, but that doesn't reflect on your ancestors.

As has already been mentioned, people who are alive today, specifically people with Irish heritage, if nothing else are descended from survivors. So far, all my lines but one were Irish Catholic (and the one was a Scot who may be of Irish descent). And more than half of my lines were in Ireland for the duration of the famine, while the rest came to America during or just before. I think that's incredible.

Incredibly interesting, anyway.

odds_on

Until Yahoo removed their geocities website, I had some info of my family tree there, a page to a family name (just over 30 pages in all). Others researching the same names contacted me and filled in unknown facts. Most were distant cousins and some of them still keep contact, as well as others (from New Zealand and USA) have actually stayed with me.

Only a couple of weeks ago, I found some more second cousins in England and I was able to contact them initially via facebook!

I haven't had the enthusiasm to reproduce and update the old geocities information and put it on another site.

Waitsian

odds_on wrote: »

Until Yahoo removed their geocities website, I had some info of my family tree there

http://archive.org/web/geocities.php

http://www.geocities.ws/archive/

owenc

HavingCrack wrote: »

Apologies if this has appeared before but I can't find a thread if it has been and I'm a newbie to this particular forum.

Anyway, I've managed to get back as far as my great great grandfather on the fraternal side (seems unlikely I'll get much further) but there doesn't appear to be anything of interest. Up until my fathers time every generation appears to have been peasant farmers (for lack of a better description) who do not appear to have done anything noteworthy whatsoever. Is this a relatively common experience in Ireland? I've become a bit disheartened.

Dont worry your not the only one, both my families were boring old farmers. Nothing remotely interested. All i found was a few scandals.