Emotional Rollercoaster

[shazzztasstic]

I have just started researching my family tree, something I have wanted to do for years but have never found the time. I only began a few days ago and have been amazed at the information out there. I have already discovered my great-great grandfather and many other things. What i was not prepared for was the emotional side of things, I felt like weeping when I found out his daughter died as a baby and other things, after he died his wife was a "fishmonger", left with 7 children, how tough must it have been for her! It feels like such an emotional journey of discovery with my "people" and I just wondered if anyone else has felt the same!

[Greensleeves]

I think one of the reasons why family history is so absorbing is because of the emotional aspect of the research.  In my family tree I have found the couple who had four little girls, all of whom died in infancy, and all called Sarah, and it doesn't take much imagination to understand the misery they must have gone through.   Elsewhere I have found a 17th century record  that a husband and wife died on the same day - what was the reason for this, I wonder?  Illness? Accident?

Then much later on there is Mary, who had three illegitimate children, left them with her aged parents when she married, and later left her husband and married a second bigamously.  She also gathered up a couple more husbands on the way and ended her years living a hopefully peaceful life in an almshouse in Bury St Edmunds.  I would like to think that she was, as they say, 'a bit of a girl', but of course it might have been that marriage was a financial necessity to keep her from the workhouse.  Don't suppose I'll ever know.

Enjoy your research,
Regards
Greensleeves

[LizzieW]

shazzztasstic

Many of us have found similar unhappy incidents.  I found a g.aunt who died age 20 leaving 2 children.  Her baby daughter died a couple of months later, followed another few months later by her son.  Her young widowed husband re-married a couple of years later, only to die himself later the same year.  All 4 of them died of totally different things.

Then there is a g.uncle who at 8 was put in an orphanage as his parents had both died, he was there until he was 14, joined the army and was killed in WWI.

Lizzie

[purplekat]

I know what you mean shazztasstic, many a time I've been suprised at how sad I've felt over events in my ancestors lives or how angry if I think there was an injustice.  I think these people who I never knew and who never knew me have become 'mine', if you know what I mean  .

[kathb]

Him, Shazzztasstic, I to have found two young boys whose mother died.  I couldn't give up searching until I found that they were looked after.  Their grandparents 'took them in' and they are both buried with the mother and grandparents.  I was so relieved that they hadn't ended up in the workhouse or orphanage.  This was over 150 years ago.
Regards
Kathb

[angelfish58]

It certainly can be very emotional, one of my husbands rellies married in the MarQ of 1891, her husband died on 08 Sept 1891, their son was born in DecQ 1891 and died 21 Feb 1892 what that poor girl must've gone through I can't imagine.

[NEILKE]

my diect line on my mams side my 2x great granfather out of a  fammily of 8 only 2  children reached adulthood there parents died when my 2xgreatgrandfather was six he went to live in the poorhouse.
neil

[Nick29]

Before embarking on family tree research, I'd always suspected that life was hard in times gone by....... I just hadn't realised how hard.

Family Tree research should be on the syllabus of all schools, even if they don't research their own families.  It would teach them more than any history book ever could.

[Luzzu]

my direct line on my mams side my 2x great granfather out of a family of 8 only 2 children reached adulthood there parents died when my 2xgreatgrandfather was six he went to live in the poorhouse.
neil

I have very similar.  My 2 x gt grandfather was one of ten and only he and one brother survived to adulthood.  All the others died of bronchitis, typhoid or diarrhoea probably caused by the appalling conditions they had to live in.

On another line my 4 x gt grandfather buried his 3 year old daughter on the same day his two other daughters were christened.  His wife died.  He married his 2nd wife.  She died on Christmas Day 1825 a few days after giving birth to their son.  Their son died shortly afterwards and mother and son were buried together.  He married his 3rd wife, my 4 x gt grandmother and they had four sons.  Unfortunately my 4 x gt grandfather died and they were forced to claim parish relief but they didn't have settlement qualifications for that parish so were subject to a removal order.  She struggled to bring up the children and eventually died in the workhouse.

Luzzu