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 ...
Actually we did and we do. But unlike in many European countries, especially in Marx's day, it was never a permanent group. People moved in and out, just as they move from being employee to employeer and back.
The other big thing we never had was a peon or serf class. Oh we had, and have, sharecroppers, and farm employees. But from day one, most farms were owned by those who farmed them, albeit often with full or part time "hepping hands", such as threshing crews for example.And as late as WW-II, most people lived on farms, or in farming communities, where they often owned their own business, such as butcher shops, barber or beauty shops, bars, grocery or other "general" stores, etc.
Even today, where most people are employees, and capitlalists too through direct or indirect stock ownership, they aren't tied to a single employeer. Although union members come pretty close, it's still a voluntary relationship.
I'm not really arguing, just interpreting things a little differently.
“Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!” “Bloody peasant!” “Oh, what a give-away. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That’s what I’m on about. Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn’t you?”
You are welcome.
The term was coined by George Orwell in his book 1984, and is short for proletarian, a favorite term of Marxists for the working class.
Ah, thanks. I read the book, but that was pre-1984, LOL.
5 ¶ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
My oldest ancestor born in the United States was also a farmer. He was born in 1653 in Rappahannock VA. He died before August 1716. His father came to the U.S. from the Isle of Wight, England, but I don't have the exact date.
NA = ???
I am dealing with that exact subject right now. I just got notice that an older man matches our yDNA 25/25, but he is not of the same surname. However, his mother is of the same surname. I am thinking he may be an uncle's child. He doesn't realize the problem, as he doesn't understand the ydna should go son to father to grandfather etc... Now the dilemma is should we tell him? He's about 80 years old.
Go rent this movie [or catch it on HBO]:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402399/And then study these Wikipedia pages:http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_DETAIL=DETAIL&FOCUS_ID=616016
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rolfehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Rolfe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Rolfe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bolling
Cornwallis brought cannon with him from New Bern.
Moral of the story: Never bring a knife to a gun fight.
Isle of Wight is awfully far south of what I'm accustomed to seeing.
Are you familiar with the work of David Hackett Fisher?
Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195069056/
I was watching a TV show years ago and Walt Disney was talking about how his Grandfather was an immigrant and he adopted Grandma's surname which was Disney.
It's not always the case that surnames are passed down male to male to male.
Anyway, descendants of the gentlemen seemed to have missed "Disney World" that evening and they are convinced that was always Grandpa Disney's name.
Wow, this guy’s rather full of himself, isn’t he? He doesn’t like genealogy so we shouldn’t either.
And he calls US snobs.
Read Kingsblood Royal by Sinclair Lewis.
Thanks, I’ll have to check that out.
I had the misfortune to have all of my fathers family, when they hit the Beach, from a little town in Gloustershire, to intermarry, as they moved about, mostly because there was no one else. I think that the incest rate, outside of the 3rd degree, might have caused problems in finding a wife
No, I’m not. I’ll need to look into his work. Thanks.
He’s 80 years old.
I say, don’t tell him. What would it accomplish? Nothing.
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