Tracing ancestors, emotional sometimes sad

[stevegraham85]

I have found this journey of tracing my ancestors sometimes sad,emotional and trying, with some joyous moments.

When i find ancestors that had it real hard in life to get a feed or have somewhere to to sleep,some ending up in the poorhouse, some that died dreadful deaths, Jailed or sent to Australia as convicts for what today we would consider a very minor offense,most given minimum 7 years hard labour and not being taken back home to England when their time was up, they were released and left to fend for themselves, with no family to support them in their hour of need.

I have moments when i wish i hadn't started this journey,i guess i also feel guilty that i have had life far easier and probably on the back of their hard work,if only i could go back in time and been able to help them out with some of the comforts that i have always taken for granted.

If only.

Oz Steve

 

[craftycsh]

Yes Steve it is an long emotional journey but it is good to find all the bits we do good or bad we might not beable to help them but might beable to see how we can change life now.Christine

 

[p.risboy]

That's the joy and pain of research mate.

It can never be all good. I had a time last year, when all I was finding were rellies who were dying in WW1.

Some times out of adversity, we find joy. And the families that eventually flourish, because of the hardships our forbears went through.

We sometimes measure what they went through by todays standards, and that often is the wrong approach. But really hard nether the less.

The motives for the often over the top prison/transportation sentences given in the past, were often the need to get labour and settlers where they were wanted.
There are all different reasons for transportation, and some if not most, were commerce and economy driven. Or just plain old out of site, out of mind.

But we're here to tell the tale, and so we can thank them for that at least.

Also people tend to forget, that there were plenty of white slaves that left these shores, bound for America and the West Indies for the very same reasons mentioned.
Cheaper to send the white slaves, than send ships to Africa to abduct and enslave native Africans.


PomSteve.

 

[stevegraham85]

Yes Steve it is an long emotional journey but it is good to find all the bits we do good or bad we might not beable to help them but might beable to see how we can change life now.Christine

Christine Hi,

I am just starting to realise what the most important things in life are after starting this journey.

Kind Regards

Steve

 

[davelambert271]

So when its cold and rainy outside and there's no beer in the fridge, just think how lucky we are to be warm, with a full tummy, and at the touch of a button, to be able to talk to our loved ones, even though they may be on the other side of the world
dave

 

[stevegraham85]

That's the joy and pain of research mate.

It can never be all good. I had a time last year, when all I was finding were rellies who were dying in WW1.

Some times out of adversity, we find joy. And the families that eventually flourish, because of the hardships our forbears went through.

We sometimes measure what they went through by todays standards, and that often is the wrong approach. But really hard nether the less.

The motives for the often over the top prison/transportation sentences given in the past, were often the need to get labour and settlers where they were wanted.
There are all different reasons for transportation, and some if not most, were commerce and economy driven. Or just plain old out of site, out of mind.

But we're here to tell the tale, and so we can thank them for that at least.

Also people tend to forget, that there were plenty of white slaves that left these shores, bound for America and the West Indies for the very same reasons mentioned.
Cheaper to send the white slaves, than send ships to Africa to abduct and enslave native Africans.


PomSteve.

Never a truer word said.

ozsteve

 

[stevegraham85]

So when its cold and rainy outside and there's no beer in the fridge, just think how lucky we are to be warm, with a full tummy, and at the touch of a button, to be able to talk to our loved ones, even though they may be on the other side of the world
dave

Sometimes we think we are hard done by until we think of how hard our ancestors really had it.

Oz steve

 

[benny1982]

Our ancestors had it hard I can tell you.

One was married 3 times and widowed 3 times. He slogged away all his life and died aged 76 in a hospital in London.

 

[stevegraham85]

Our ancestors had it hard I can tell you.

One was married 3 times and widowed 3 times. He slogged away all his life and died aged 76 in a hospital in London.

Benny Hi,

When one finds out how hard our ancestors had life it makes one realise how lucky we are.

Oz Steve

 

[benny1982]

Sure does.

In 1886 my 3xgreat grandfather stayed cooped up on an immigration ship to America. And his trade was coal mining.