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  1. #1
    horseshoe
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    Default funny where you get your bits from

    hello,

    The title of this thread is taken from a book by the actress Sue Johnston, on of the "Who Do You Think You Are" episodes.
    I interpret this saying as this , "the blood carries", my own saying. in other words, what we are is who are ancestors were.
    Where do you get your passions , your drives from?.
    Why do you do something and you can not figure out why, maybe this compels you to go into the past and find out, you visit a place or building a feel an eerie affinity with it ; an old workhouse, barracks, a mill , mines, and find your ancestors had contact with these places and institutions; I wonder how many people are making these connections.
    So many that it becomes too much to be regarded as a coincidence.

    I have another saying, " the human heart is timeless" it is one of my favourite and I use it all the time , it encompasses many things about the human condition, past and present and often links the two and makes us connect with our ancestors and with our nation's past , no matter how much you go through now, those who have gone before you have experienced it too: love , loss, victory and defeat .
    It is because of this shared emotional connectedness that we have our follies , passions , interests and quirks for the "blood indeed carries" because the "heart" moves it.

    all good wishes.

    Horseshoe. great/ grand daughter of the blacksmith.

  2. #2
    Mary Anne
    Guest

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    Couldn't agree more, horseshoe!

    In my genealogy research I have found out a number of things that underline/reinforce my own skills:

    1) my great great grandmother on my mother's side was said to have been an excellent seamstress who when young, was reportedly trained in millinery. As a young widow, and probably needing to earn some funds, she apparently became renowned for her facility to make fine pintucks in men's shirts (shirts she presumably sold). Her granddaughter also was excellent in embroidery (I have some of the wonderful pillows and linen table mats she made). I have always been interested in sewing and making my own clothes and was never more happy than when I could design, make and wear them (in my hometown in far-away Canada) based on the patterns then being worn by Twiggy et al in England during the "Swinging Sixties" ;-))

    2) Since I retired several years ago, I have undertaken to do pastel painting. I started when I had enrolled in a watercolour class and there weren't enough students, so they offered a pastel course instead and I used my grandmother's (very good quality) pastel set!! Then, the pastel medium being what it is (pure pigment and colour) I was hooked and have been doing pastels ever since -- my friends often buy my pieces right off the easel! My grandfather on my father's side was a graduate of the Beaux-Arts school in Québec City in the 1880s and went on to become a gifted sculptor who made a plaster model of Canada's "new" Parliament Buildings in the 1920s.

    3) in 2007, I journeyed to Vimy, France, for the re-dedication of the newly restored Canadian War Memorial there. I took some time to follow in the footsteps of my father who had fought there with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Like many teenagers/twenty-somethings, when told not to do something, he went ahead and did it -- so I had his diaries, as well as (unlabelled) photos and negatives to guide me. Long story short, I was able to duplicate a photo of a billet he stayed at in France -- found the town and the billet itself totally by chance! Chills ran up my spine when I realized it was the place that was in the negative he had left me ...

    They reach out to us every day, don't they?


    Mary Anne

  3. #3
    horseshoe
    Guest

    Default

    hello Mary Ann,

    Yes I think in a way they do "reach out".
    I loved reading your detailed post which explained and expanded on what I was trying to say.
    I used to love digging holes in the ground when I was 9 years old! and in my 20's I had a strange fixation for underground places, mines and caves-I have found this week I have a bigger mining family than I realised.
    The only thing I need to figure out now is my passion for the military??.

    And on that last note and your Vimy trip, I studied the Great War seriously for 25 years, I became interested at the age of 8, when I met a French woman who family had been through three wars: 1870, 1914-18 and 1939-45, you never forget someone like that.

    There is one thing of which I am certain; dear lady, my country could not have fought the 1914-18 conflict without the help of the empire countries, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and tragic New Foundland, may God bless you we could not have done it without you.

    Cheers!

  4. #4
    Pegasus
    Guest

    Default

    I also agree with Horseshoe.

    I am a Timeserved Plater/Welder, in my research I have discovered that I have numerous ancestors that were: Boilermen, Blacksmiths, Nailmakers.

    My Brother is a trained Mechanic & also an IT Pro, as a child he once striped down a clock & put it back (with a few pieces left over) the clock worked fine, we discovered a few Watchmakers in our Family Tree!

  5. #5
    Brick wall demolition expert!
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Lancashire
    Posts
    3,642

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    I like to think that I get my inner strength from a long line of strong females on both sides, but sometimes I look at parts of my family tree and think, maybe circumstances also play a part, or perhaps what is seen as a positive trait in one generation can equally be negative one in other generations.

    On my mother's side I can trace my ancestors back to the 1500s. One notable group of these ancestors was the Rev. William Gambold, (1672-1728) a rector in Pembrokeshire and his sons. The Rev. William was a keen antiquarian and lexicographer, and published the first Welsh/English grammar, the manuscript of which is at the National Library of Wales. One of his sons John (1711-1771), was set to follow in his footsteps, and was ordained as the vicar of Stanton Harcourt near Oxford. Whilst studying at Oxford Uni he had become friends with the Wesley brothers, and they were all members of the "Holy Club". He then came into contact with the Moravian Church sometimes called the United Brethren, which had been founded in Bohemia as part of the non conformist movement. He broke with the Anglican Church and joined the Moravians, becoming the first British Bishop of that Church. Another son, Hector (1719-1788), also joined the Moravians and in 1742 went with them as a missionary to America, and one his sons eventually became a missionary to the Cherokee Indians. Another son, George (1718-1755) also joined the Moravians. The last son, William (1712-1806), and my ancestor, became a Methodist and was a local preacher and exhorter.

    So a very religious, and pious family. But we fast forward to the two of the last mentioned son's grandsons; George (1778-?) and John (1779-1837). George's sons were the opposite of their ancestors: one was transported to Australia for horse stealing, another had at least 2 illegitimate children to different girls before a third marched him down the aisle heavily pregnant. He seems to have led something of a "Walter Mitty Life", constantly reinventing himself, before dying on the common on the way to the poor house. As for John, I now believe that he had at least one illegitimate child between his marriages, and possibly another before he married.

    So within the space of 100 years the family's morals seem to have veered from one side of the spectrum to the other. But it makes the story so much more interesting, doesn't it?

  6. #6
    horseshoe
    Guest

    Default

    Thanks, Pegasus and Megan, loved reading your posts, next to knowing my own ancestry , I find others fascinating. One of my interests is social history which I got interested in as an offshoot of the military history-the army being a cross section of any society.
    Did anyone see the " Secrets of the Workhouse" two part series ?, I really liked the reaction of Brian Cox, I think I would and indeed do feel the same way, when you think also of what our ancestors went through to be then asked to fight a dreadful war.

    I think I get my militancy from my working class heritage!

    best wishes to all.

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