Genealogy is a whole different animal from the one I knew when my family began this quest back in the 1980s. The main change is due to the rise in popularity of the home computer and the emergence of the Internet. However, advances in medicine will be changing the thoughts of future genealogists.
Currently, as we examine the records of our ancestors, when we see a woman in her 50s with a child, we assume it was a grandchild and that the child would soon be placed with another family, as life expectancy was vastly shorter than now. Today, the average life expectancy is in the 70s and climbing, and the childbearing years are advancing as well. In addition, with the rise in in-vitro fertilization, a “non-paternity event” need not bear the hint of scandal as it did in the past.
If man is nothing else, however, we are adaptable, and we will adjust to these changes, no matter how reluctant we may be to accept them. It is why I have learned to read more about the life and times of past family members.
For example I have two generations of men who were named Warren, Raymond and Stanley in some combination, and I have hungered to know the reason those names were passed on. Was there a relative I have not yet found, or did Mom just like the names? On the Scotland’s People website, I learned that in 1914, when Britain engaged in World War I, the name Kitchener became a popular man’s first name because of Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War.
That’s not the first place I would have looked for the reason for a first name. Although I have to admit that I should, given the penchant, in Fred’s family, for naming their son’s after famous men; hence he has Thomas Jefferson Brawn, James Madison Brawn, Christopher Columbus Gray, etc. One cousin was named DeWitt Clinton Brawn, a name I admired, but didn’t understand until I happened upon New York history and learned he was a senator and New York governor and largely responsible for the Erie Canal. Fred’s Dewitt Clinton Brawn achieved some fame in his own right, as the inventor of ranging lights that became critical for river navigation to the Great Lakes.
I’m not suggesting we all take history classes, or read “War and Peace”. Learning about the influences in my ancestor’s lives has most often been incidental to learning other more mundane aspects, looking through town records for birth dates, or scanning the newspapers of the time for an obituary.
Learning can be painless, maybe fun, I guarantee some of those old newspaper ads will crack you up! One piece of information leads to another. Though you may have ignored your high school history teacher, you will find that over time, your family history has brought you a broader historical knowledge, which has also added to appreciation of what your ancestors went through resulting in you.
Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft is a longtime genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader emails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com. Her semimonthly column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society which meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center at 6:30 p.m. Guests are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501.
