(no subject)
Hmm, in History we're starting to study British Politics 1918-1939 (just two random dates to study between naturally ;))
To start this, we watched (most of) a video of an episode of a series called "Who do you think you are" in which they take celebrities, and look at the recent histories (generally 2-4 generations back) of their families.
This one was Jeremy Paxman (for those who don't know, he's a British Journalist, who does all the most important political interviews for the BBC; the ones who are likely to be good at spinning an interview, and he is very confrontational about it, I have fond memories of a clip of him asking Michael Howard (former Conservative party Leader) the same question abuot 11 times, each time Howard trying to avoid it, and Paxman repeating it. It was funny. And when they tried to get him to end the programme he interviews on (Newsnight) with a quick weather report as opposed to Market news, he did it, but in a way that made it clear he thought it was ridiculous, and they stopped it after a week. (They had a graphic with a lot of rain forecasted Paxman: "Take an Umbrella" and when some really awful weather forecasted Paxman: "Don't go out"). 'twas funny too.
But anyway, they took him back through his mother's family past, his grandfather'd been an artilleryman but stayed in the UK; then died, leaving his grandmother to rely on poor relief which was stopped when she had an illegitimate child. But she fought on with 11 children and managed to raise them all, and then join the Salvation Army and go to Canada.
All heart-warming stuff I'm sure. But he started the programme saying he was only doing it because it would be also about social history, and might be on instead of some other rubbish programme (which I agree with). And saying that it wasn't important to him, but by the end he did really get into it.
What I'm wondering is if I care. I'm proud of being Welsh, and to some extent that's ancestral pride as well as cultural, but it's general ancestral pride, communal pride if you will, rather than looking for a family tree and names and relations etc. My surname is apparently a corruption of the name for a forrester from a forest (the forest still exists but the bit one branch of my family probably came from is probably now gone) that was to the east of Wales, and at some point my father's family migrated West into Wales sometime between the 13th century onwards, and intermarried with Welsh people of the time. My mother's family comes mostly from Cornwall and Devon, though there are a few Welsh Aunts back a generation or two
(Historically (eg lots of centuries ago, probably around 9 or so), Wales and Cornwall used to be allied, and closer knit than either was with the rest of England, but meh).
The point I'm rambling towards, is should I care about my particular ancestors, my mother traced her family back and the list of names doesn't really mean an awful lot to me (and the website "genesreunited" that my mother did it through required that you put some census/records info back in, in order to draw some out, so they build up a larger and larger database so more people can use it and not have to dig through records written down all over the country). So my mother put in some old devonish records (I put in a fair few, and deciphering the old handwriting was murder, especially the difference between Farmer and Farrier and 2 and 3) 'twas evil. I'm not sure I really do care about my specific ancestors. Historically wise, I'm not interested in those who are insignificant, or in them specifically, I'd be interested in their lives, but their generic way of life, whether they're my or someone else's ancestor doesn't matter for me.
Should it? Perhaps. *shrugs*
bye...
To start this, we watched (most of) a video of an episode of a series called "Who do you think you are" in which they take celebrities, and look at the recent histories (generally 2-4 generations back) of their families.
This one was Jeremy Paxman (for those who don't know, he's a British Journalist, who does all the most important political interviews for the BBC; the ones who are likely to be good at spinning an interview, and he is very confrontational about it, I have fond memories of a clip of him asking Michael Howard (former Conservative party Leader) the same question abuot 11 times, each time Howard trying to avoid it, and Paxman repeating it. It was funny. And when they tried to get him to end the programme he interviews on (Newsnight) with a quick weather report as opposed to Market news, he did it, but in a way that made it clear he thought it was ridiculous, and they stopped it after a week. (They had a graphic with a lot of rain forecasted Paxman: "Take an Umbrella" and when some really awful weather forecasted Paxman: "Don't go out"). 'twas funny too.
But anyway, they took him back through his mother's family past, his grandfather'd been an artilleryman but stayed in the UK; then died, leaving his grandmother to rely on poor relief which was stopped when she had an illegitimate child. But she fought on with 11 children and managed to raise them all, and then join the Salvation Army and go to Canada.
All heart-warming stuff I'm sure. But he started the programme saying he was only doing it because it would be also about social history, and might be on instead of some other rubbish programme (which I agree with). And saying that it wasn't important to him, but by the end he did really get into it.
What I'm wondering is if I care. I'm proud of being Welsh, and to some extent that's ancestral pride as well as cultural, but it's general ancestral pride, communal pride if you will, rather than looking for a family tree and names and relations etc. My surname is apparently a corruption of the name for a forrester from a forest (the forest still exists but the bit one branch of my family probably came from is probably now gone) that was to the east of Wales, and at some point my father's family migrated West into Wales sometime between the 13th century onwards, and intermarried with Welsh people of the time. My mother's family comes mostly from Cornwall and Devon, though there are a few Welsh Aunts back a generation or two
(Historically (eg lots of centuries ago, probably around 9 or so), Wales and Cornwall used to be allied, and closer knit than either was with the rest of England, but meh).
The point I'm rambling towards, is should I care about my particular ancestors, my mother traced her family back and the list of names doesn't really mean an awful lot to me (and the website "genesreunited" that my mother did it through required that you put some census/records info back in, in order to draw some out, so they build up a larger and larger database so more people can use it and not have to dig through records written down all over the country). So my mother put in some old devonish records (I put in a fair few, and deciphering the old handwriting was murder, especially the difference between Farmer and Farrier and 2 and 3) 'twas evil. I'm not sure I really do care about my specific ancestors. Historically wise, I'm not interested in those who are insignificant, or in them specifically, I'd be interested in their lives, but their generic way of life, whether they're my or someone else's ancestor doesn't matter for me.
Should it? Perhaps. *shrugs*
bye...