Family history can have positive surprises too! (General)

by rookancestrybest , United Kingdom, Sunday, April 11, 2010, 00:07 (5419 days ago) @ slowhands

Family history can sometimes reavel unpleasant truths but this needs to be counterbalanced against pleasant surprises too. If one expects to find skeletons in the family history cupboard then the pleasant findings are an added bonus. I have not found any skeletons in my family history though perhaps it depends how one defines a skeleton? I have been pleasantly surprised most of the time. As the latter can apply then family history research could be seen to be beneficial to people's well being and sense of belonging and could result in the opposite effects from those described by Dr. Ann Marie Kramer. We are living in a risk aversed society, but if we never took any risks we would do very little.
From doing my family history I feel I belong to every corner of the British Isles and have found out all sorts of things about those who made lives abroad too. I have now over 3000 people on my family tree and I feel enriched by knowing about all of them.
My family history research has made me feel proud of what my ancestors have achieved, that does not just mean those who have achieved materially and made a name for themselves but also I am proud of all those ordinary people who have faced adversity and led "ordinary lives". I am just as proud of the people I find were poor or suffered as those who achieved what the world considers material wealth or other forms of success. The saddest thing I have found is of a little boy aged 11 years of age who died in a mining disaster along with his two brothers (not a Forest of Dean ancestor) and I am pleased that I know he and his brothers existed just as much as someone in my family history who was a famous musician and composer.
Sometimes "the ordinary person" has achieved far more than we think, the fact they survived despite the adversity is sometimes amazing in itself.
Things can be a shock but let's not be pessimistic, we cannot change what our ancestors did. If we find things they did which we may not approve of we can learn from that to make sure we don't fall into similar traps. We also need to bear in mind the context in which they lived was very different from the context in which we live. We need to put ourselves in their place and if we do not approve of what they did they might not have had any alternative and we might have done the same thing or something similar in similar circumstances. Either way we are not responsible for things which people in the past did but we are responsible for what we do. Look at it another way too, what would our ancestors think about some of the things we do? We are by no means perfect and from their perspective they might have been ashamed of us and the way we live. The passage of time does not always bring progress!Besides it may enable people to repair family rifts just as much as it might maintain them.
Hope this gives the counter argument to being too cautious about family history and that it is helpful to others. Finally there is also a lot to be gained by feeling part of an e-community like the Forest of Dean Family History website too.