After all, how many names have only the parents, birth, occupation, siblings, marriage, death and living locations
We are "spoilt" by the internet. With facebook, twitter & co. we take it for granted that everybody knows (or can find out) everything about us.
In his book on researching Shakespeare Bill Bryson makes the point that the only written details for most of our ancestors were the parish register entries for baptism, marriage and burial. Later, with civil registration, they were mentioned in birth, marriage and death certificates, and, after 1841, in the census returns.
Unless ..... they did something which merited an entry somewhere, which we can now pounce on with cries of joy
And unfortunately, for many it was just the "dark side" that got commemorated
In this sense I am fortunate that my maternal grandfather and his three brothers were well known lawyers, reporters and political activists between the World Wars, so I often find snippets about them and their activities in the internet.
Other than that, my family stayed out of trouble, and out of the public eye ...although, I must confess: recently another family researcher found some newspaper articles, where our great-great-grandmother tried to sue someone for support and maintenance of our great-grandmother but the case was thrown out of court. It was also mentioned that she had been tried previously for concealing the birth of another illegitimate child !
Bob
