Leo McKinstry, I found a statue of your uncle.
Posted on 05/08/2008 3:18:15 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Leo McKinstry says the current craze for genealogy reflects an unhealthy combination of snobbery and inverse snobbery, and is a poor replacement for national history
When I visited the National Archives at Kew last week the place was full of them, scurrying about with their plastic wallets in hand, a look of eager concentration on their faces. It was impossible to escape their busy presence as they whispered noisily to relatives or whooped over the discovery of some new piece of information.
These were the followers of one of Britain’s fastest-growing craze, the mania for researching family history. Studying bloodlines and tracing ancestral roots was once the preserve of the aristocracy. Today, as I saw at the National Archives, it has become a favourite activity of the British public. We are becoming a nation of obsessive genealogists. According to a recent study by the polling organisation YouGov, 28 per cent of British people have tried at some stage to trace their family tree, and 10 per cent of the population are currently doing so. It is said that genealogy websites are the most commonly visited on the internet after pornography. The website Genes Reunited, which claims to be ‘the UK’s number one family tree and genealogy site’, boasts that it has no fewer than eight million members. Another major web company, Find My Past, says that it has a registered usership of 1.32 million people and a mailing list of almost 600,000.
Ten years ago, there was just one mainstream genealogy magazine. Now there are seven. Another indicator of this fixation with family history is the phenomenal success of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?, whose weekly episodes feature different celebrities tracing their roots.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.co.uk ...
My wife did a geneology search on both mine and her family a couple summers ago. What we discovered only increased our national pride, not diminished it.
The family, not the state, is the foundation stone of society, and thus history. I am very interested in my bloodlines...and I teach them to my children and grandchildren. It is important to know who we are, where we came from, and the lessons learned from our ancestors. I see nothing wrong with the study of genealogy.
Well stated. I love genealogy. I never thought I would say that. It is neat tying in the historical era with ancestors.
I have known for years that we have NA ancestors but one cousin does not want that fact mentioned. I feel sorry for him since that is what made us what we are today. Just wish I could find out more information on her.
GENEALOGY n. The tracing of descent from ancestors; alternatively, a particular account of such tracing for a specific individual or family. In the English-speaking world, all those who take up this pursuit announce sooner or later that they can trace their descent back to Edward III. This should surprise no one with a rudimentary knowledge of mathematics; there are probably one or two well-bred basset hounds who could also trace their descent back to Edward III. What is really surprising is that Edward III seems to be regarded as some kind of ultimate antecedent beyond whom the genealogist does not venture, even though anyone descended from Edward III is also descended from his father Edward II, and so on. The author can guess only that the prudery of the late Victorian age (when genealogy became a family pastime) chose to draw a veil before the memory of Edward II in view of the sybaritic Plantagenet’s bisexual reputation and appalling death (see impalement).— Peter Bowler, The Superior Person’s Book of Words.
Where does this phrase come from?
When I learned US History as a kid, I learned about important events in our Nations history. When I studied my genealogy I learned that my ancestors were there. Fighting in those wars, moving West. They lived the history I only read about and it became more alive to me.
I’m not familiar with what “NA” refers to.
Well said, indeed.
I happen to believe I’ll meet the ansestors on the other side so looking up their names now is a total waste of time. I agree with the author.
It seems this author doesn’t have an appreciation for history. Family histories are important to people within the family, nothing wrong with that! If the conversation bores you, politely say so and move on. Don’t criticize the interests of others and decry it as “bunk.”
Liberals would like to ban genealogy studies because it discriminates against the artifically-inseminated & surrogated children of gay couples.
Same here with what we learned about my family’s history.
It sounds as though Leo McKinstry is a bit ticked off that he doesn’t have the library archives all to himself anymore ... the peasants are running amuck and Leo has decided to do something about it ... whine!
My father's side of the family goes back into Georgia into the late 1600s and very early 1700s. They escaped England so they could worship ALmighty God as they saw fit. From their they literally spread across the nation, north and south...east and west.
My mother's family came from eastern Europe (Slovak Republic area) in the mid to late 1800s, and her father came from Austria right around the turn of the century. They escaped despotism and persecution and poverty to find a new life in America. They were successful.
Both families sacrificed life's blood in defending freedom and this nation.
The contention that somehow it is wrong to take pride in these things is ludicrous. I guess it depends on what a person is looking for and what they want to hold up.
Native American. Sorry!
Ping.
Native American I would suppose ... unless, of course, it's North African.
Perhaps Mr. McKinstry (with whom I share surnames) was just disappointed (as I was) to discover that the family name was not a distinct clan name unto itself with a designated plaid.
In truth, I have nothing against geneaology, but I’d really like to know the stories of my ancestors not just dates of birth, marriage and death. The real stories are few and far between.
He’s just another socialist who thinks he’s better than the rest of us.
My guess is that the author’s family were probably a bunch of drunken slobs from Scotland or some other such ignominious band of ne’er do wells.
Personally, I get frustrated trying to go back much more than 100-150 years, since our family were all in the Pogroms (and worse) of Eastern Europe at that time. However, I’ve become pretty fanatic about preserving what I can of my parents generational stuff. As I’ve learned through my friends at the County Historical Society, what we may see as pretty ordinary now could be a serious mirror into this time when looked at by 22nd Century historians.
The genealogical information and the medical condition dovetailed. He was able to find a surgical team prepared to correct the problem.
Eventually we will have a national DNA registry. That can be combined with genetic information to assist doctors in diagnosing and treating serious diseases.
BTW, I've since found we have a number of other interesting gene variations that can be of concern if we keep living in these horrid Southern latitudes.
Mush you huskies, mush! We goin' up North to Alaska (if not in this generation, the next maybe).
Nobody ought to be upset because their ancestors weren't noble or rich or famous.
But genealogy does have its own interest.
It can demonstrate just how connected you may be to the country's history.
It's possible to attach too much importance to ancestry, but it's a little like rhythm or rhyme in literature.
It points out connections that we wouldn't notice otherwise and gives an immediacy to things that could otherwise appear dry and irrelevant.
Complete and utter horse$hit.
Most genealogists now more American history than other graduates of Liberal Arts Colleges.
Leo McKinstry, I found a statue of your uncle.
I have found that ancestors fought in every war since the Revolutionary War. History was one of my favorite subjects in high school.
In the case of my family, genealogy provided some healing.
Unanswered questions, unaddressed issues, absent family members.
And I agree, genealogy is a great way to study history.
I just love it!
The Genographic Project (Have Your DNA Checked, Find Your Roots)
In one branch of my family I found an interesting chain. A famous Lord Mayor of London whose father was a great West Indies Plantation owner who was one of the largest slave owners in the new world. Within about five generations he had a decendent of the same name that was an acquaintance of John Brown and was accused of being one of the Pottowatome raiders.
An example, we had all these folks who used Revolutionary War warrants to acquire land in the Ohio Valley ~ but none of them were quite old enough to be veterans of the war, and none of them had a father or grandfather who was in the military to earn the warrants.
So, where did they get them if they didn't buy them (also a common practice but there was no evidence they'd purchased them from a vet or vet's family).
Eventually we found they'd had cousins, brothers, uncles and other close relatives, but not direct ancestors, in the Maryland 400 ~ which saw 256 of its number dead at the end of a battle in Brooklyn where they covered George Washington's evacuation to safety. They literally saved the Revolution.
http://www.somdnews.com/stories/053106/entefea173542_32080.shtml
I meant to include you, with Jeff, in my post at 31.
My mother's side came to America from Naples a century ago, but they came to Naples from Spain during the Inquisition. I suspect they were Jews fleeing Torquemada.
My father's side came to America from Messina at the same time, but they came to Sicily from Greece centuries earlier. (Don't ask about the defrocked priest in that lineage.)
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The one thing I've learned from studying my family tree is that there's a reason some distant relatives are distant.
Having throughly researched the name “McKinstry” I discovered that it used to be spelled “My Kins Try” and that Leo is an unknown son of Elvis and entitled to half of all of Elvis’ earnings. Go for it Leo!
(maybe this will keep Leo busy instead of worrying about library patrons.)
This thread reminds me of a Monty Python parody commercial where the fast-talking announcer sells a nerdy twit on the notion of plastering his walls with antique photographs of other peoples’ heroic or noble ancestors, and then declares,
“And now, pretend that these forebears are part of YOUR past!!”
(The twit flies rapturously around his overdecorated room).
Anyway, I too look forward to meeting relatives gone long before I was born. At least in Heaven, we’ll all be speaking English.
;^)
inspired genius.
Some of my kin's marriage records (in Texas) where packed up & shipped off to Spain when the Spaniards gave up Mexico.
You jest. I have it on good authority you’ll need to know Skolt Sa’ami, and maybe reformed Sumerian.
Prole, proletarian=the lower classes, commoners
Wait til you see the number of children who are not fathered by the mother's husband. This is one of the concerns genealogists face with some of the family DNA attempts being made.
My experience exactly. When my aunt died, I inherited all her genealogy papers. My mother's side of the family (through my aunt's research) was able to trace their roots back to a Lieutenant under General Washington, who was shot in the leg transmitting dispatches to the General. Because of this revolutionary war wound, his name was recorded for history. Through him, my mother's family was entitled to be considered "DAR"-- Daughters of American Revolution. I was blown away with her research until I discovered that she took it one step further and uncovered proof that had the family be considered as -- "DAC" -- Daughters of American Colonists. Cool!
My great grandfather was born in the 1850’s. As a kid, he shook hands with Abraham Lincoln. This account was retold in a local newspaper clipping that I have from the 1940’s. My family were Republicans on both sides. They were conservatives. My great great grandfather founded a Methodist Church in 1850’s as well. In my father’s last years, he realized the Methodist Church had left him, and I took him to a new church home, and this made him very happy. My father lived along enough to vote for Bush in 2000. I voted for Bush in 2004. But alas, this year I cannot and will not vote for the Republican Presidential candidate nor will I vote for the Democratic candidate. I can say with some degree of certainty, that on my father’s side of the family this is the first time a male has not voted Republican for the Presidency since the Republican Party was founded. We have a choice, we can fashion ourselves to the times or we can stand firm on principle and move on from what was foundational to our family’s forefathers. I am at peace with this decision. And someday, in my eternal peace, I know I will rest with ancestors in a cemetery plot where my stone awaits me, as does my ancestors who date of birth on their stones go back as far as 1815.
There are reports of “problems” in that direction.
I can just imagine the assignment desk editor at The Spectator saying, "McKinstry ! Write something on this genealogy business. My brother-in-law is obsessed by it and I can't stand the bloody blogger. You know what to do, put genealogy down and make the people look stupid. I don't need it good, I need it Tuesday."
So dutifully McKinstry sets out to write as he is told. It reminds me of Rex Reed some years ago determined to make a name for himself as a movie critic being flamboyantly obnoxious and cutting about the people he was reviewing, much like the English chap on American Idol whose name I am proud to say I do not know.
If you are a young fashion designer determined to make a reputation and set your new career on an upward course, you might contrive a more flamboyant fashion trend. Or, you might try to make a name for yourself by wittily burlesquing the garments of celebrities for television viewers. You might even publish a worst dressed list.
It's cynical and it cheapens us all.
I have no idea how being bored by genealogy makes you a liberal, but if you actually read the article to the end, he is not a liberal. The last 2 or 3 paragraphs are especially worth reading.
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