[or-roots] Genealogy and Family History

[E V Barnes]

In the 1700's and 1800's it was not uncommon to have large families.  And one may 
find two children of the same name, one having died and the the next surviving.  The
span between children is the reason for the legal doctrine of the fertile octagarion in
the common law.  And of course as mentioned, there was always the matter of 
micarriage.  We have a first son who was 12 when he drowned.  His namesake
was the youngest of 10 children and survived.


----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Harguess, Dale 
  To: or-roots at sosinet.sos.state.or.us 
  Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 8:48 AM
  Subject: RE: [or-roots] Genealogy and Family History


  Your words reminded me of one of my mystery ancestors.  I can't for the life of me figure out why there is such a length of time between the births of his first and second child.  I do not know  what was going on at that time in history (other than Indian wars) and since he was a farmer I can't really imagine why there would be a ten year span between his first and second child.  He had a cousin about the same age and he too had about 10 years between his first and second child.  The first child was born in Ohio about 1835 and the second was born in Iowa about 1845 and then the third about 1850.  They came to Oregon about 1852.  Do you have any ideas on this?

  Thanks,

  Dale



  -----Original Message-----
  From: or-roots-admin at sosinet.sos.state.or.us [mailto:or-roots-admin at sosinet.sos.state.or.us] On Behalf Of CKlooster at aol.com
  Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 6:43 PM
  To: or-roots at sosinet.sos.state.or.us
  Subject: [or-roots] Genealogy and Family History



  I've done worked on my family lines since the early 1970's and it complimented nicely an interest in history and an inate curiousity.  It was frustrating, however, to have names and places and dates but no stories handed down to flesh these ancestors out.  I was content with that until some information about the support group called Adult Children of Alcohol Parents and Dysfunctional Families  crossed my desk one day.  I scanned through it because it pertains to my job...and suddenly something struck me, so I read the material.  I realized then that whether or not we are children of alcoholic parents and dysfunctional families, who and what our ancestors were has a definite impact on who we are as people...and I'm not just talking about brown eyes or curly hair.  Here is a story that was told at a national mental health meeting that I attended:



  A new husband watched fondly as his young wife prepared dinner in the kitchen of their apartment.  She placed a pot roast on the cutting board and carefully sliced it in half.  She then placed the meat in a roasting pan with one slice piled precisely on top of the other and put it in the over.  Puzzled, the man asked why she'd cut the roast in two.  "That's the way you cook pot roast" she replied, "My mom makes the best pot roast and that's the way she cooks it.".  The next time they were at his in-law's house the young man brought up the subject of pot roast, "I'm curious about why you cut the roast in two." he said.  The mother-in-law looked at him with a puzzled expression and replied, " I don't know why it needs to cook that way, I guess because it cooks better.  My mother always cooked hers that way.".  Once the subject had been raised, there was much discussion and nobody had a definitive answer.  "I'll settle this," the mother-in-law said, "I'll call my mother and ask her why."   Grandma answered the telephone and the question was put to her; there was a long pause and Grandma said, "I don't know why you cut the roast in half, but I had to because I only had a very small roasting pan.".



  The point of this is that traits and beliefs and ideas are often passed along to us unwittingly.  One technigue taught by ACOA is to do a family inventory.  You begin with the earliest ancestor that you know and write down eveyrthing that you know about them...dates and places; how many children in their family; how old their parents were; how old they were when they married and began to have children; family legends; occupation...everything you can think of.  For the furthest back ancestors that may only be a name and a date and a place.  You work forward, taking each person as an individual and writing down eveything you know or have heard.  Once you have completed this task (and it's a lot more difficult for those of us who've been doing genealogy for awhile) you start looking at what was going on in the world at the time these people were alive and thinking of how it may have impacted their lives.  I have an ancestor who was in the Civil War.  At 25 he married a very young girl and promptly moved with her to Indiana/Illinois where his parents lived.  Leaving her pregnant and with his parents, he went off to war.  There she was, young, pregnant, and living with her in-laws far from her own family.  When Johnny came marching home again he stayed just long enough for her to become pregnant a second time before he went off to the silver mines of California leaving her behind still with the in-laws.  It wasn't until several years later that he went back to Illinois and gathered up his family to move them to Oregon.  I know only the barest facts about this branch of the family, but after doing this exercise they became more than just names and dates.  When I look at the lives of their children I begin to see more of pattern.  It's interesting to see that some patterns are traceable through a number of generations...sometimes right down to me!



  If you do this sort of exercise and make a timeline of what was happening in the world, you can add quite a bit to the portrait of an ancestor who has only been a name and date.  A picture and a pattern often begins to appear.   Letters and journals and memoirs are terrific when you can find them, but far too few ancestors leave us that sort of record. 



  So yes, on this list we often digress, but those disgressions add to the history...even if the history is comparatively recent.



  And, as can be seen by the number of facts that quickly appear as the result of most queries, we actually do some genealogical research from time to time!



  Carla 
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