According to new research just published in the UK, one in eight of you may dig up something traumatic or at least embarrassing if you investigate your family history. "Genealogy can open 'Pandora's box'" of family secrets" published in the Daily Telegraph These results reflect the remnants of a Victorian and class conscious culture.
Wonder what the results would have been if it had been conducted on this side of the Atlantic? Perhaps; but personally, I've never found found the horse thief I was promised when I started researching my family four decades ago. However, I have found convicted forgers, murderers, suicides, witches and bastards -- some with official bastardy bonds. I've also found connections to inventors, authors, Presidents and more traditional Royalty. I guess if you dig up enough ancestors, you will get the whole range of characters who make up humankind. For me, that's what keeps me researching. But I guess if one has a carefully constructed conception of one's self, maybe one should tread lightly.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
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