Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I found this interesting because I consider this similar to when people ask me why I am proud of my slave owning and non slave owning ancestors that fought and some died in the CW......they fought honorably and with great courage for whatever reason...I honor their courage and loyalty.
One of my gggrandfathers owned 25 slaves. One of my uncles owned close to a 100. Am I proud of it ? No. Ashamed of it ? No.
On my childrens side of the family, one of their ancestors murdered a man and fled the state of GA to Fla and lived, off and on, with the Indians.
I truly haven't run across anyone, to my knowledge, that was just horrible. A pedophile or child molester would be the ultimate shame....horse thief, nah, adulterer, nah, lazy bum, nah.
I am enjoying the other stories.
Not to be a prick,but most slave owners were pedophiles,rapists,and murderers,to name a few.
That's is horrible.
I am not really "ashamed " of my ancestors. Yes, lots of them did things that I don't approve of, but they were products of their time and their actions do not affect me.
I am more ashamed of my current relatives. Let's see I have a cousin who was recently busted of running a meth lab in the same house his kids were living in. My mother has been married six times and two of her husbands molested me, my father (who by the way was a drunk) has had four wives, my SIL is a junky who get caught selling her body for drugs (yes my brother divorce her and took the kids) , and my uncle was a sex offender.
As I said, the fact that my ancestors were horse thieves and slave holders does not shame me at all!
Oh and by the way, as soon as I got of age, I moved far away from these people and with the exception of talking on the phone to my mother once a month I have no contact with any of them and have not been back since I left.
I am not really "ashamed " of my ancestors. Yes, lots of them did things that I don't approve of, but they were products of their time and their actions do not affect me.
I am more ashamed of my current relatives. Let's see I have a cousin who was recently busted of running a meth lab in the same house his kids were living in. My mother has been married six times and two of her husbands molested me, my father (who by the way was a drunk) has had four wives, my SIL is a junky who get caught selling her body for drugs (yes my brother divorce her and took the kids) , and my uncle was a sex offender.
As I said, the fact that my ancestors were horse thieves and slave holders does not shame me at all!
Oh and by the way, as soon as I got of age, I moved far away from these people and with the exception of talking on the phone to my mother once a month I have no contact with any of them and have not been back since I left.
I think this should be the point. If you ancestors were pirates or sold slaves, or to be honest, did the sort of things which in their time were normal to do, but not acceptable now, they are your *ancestors*. You didn't have any wash in their choices.
Now, my 5xggrandfather was a pety thief who ended up as a convict slave in Maryland. His choice did impact me since he's a direct relative, but its what he did with the rest of his life that carried on. I don't condem him his choice, and it was a choice many many displaced when lands were enclosed ended up taking for survivial. But most of all it was close to300 years ago.
But my grandfather dumped my grandmother for someone he met at work, during the middle of the Great Depression with two children. He worked for the studios so did well, but never paid her a cent for child support. Him I think I am justified in feeling ashamed of. Mom had one year of college instead of four. My grandmother scraped by while he moved on. And I knew him personally. Mom kept contact though the rest of his family didn't. He did in his own way have an impact on my life.
Someday our generations will be looked back on and our descendents will say how awful, how could they be like that, but we are living in OUR world and they will live in theirs.
It's like those who look at history only from the pespective of the present. You don't really know history until you plug your mind into the time with a book or a diary or something which shows how different it was, and try to see the world as they did then.
Oh I've had a couple that at first made me think "oh, really?" or "oh no". But, after further research they turned out to be okay. My research isn't over, so there's no telling what I'll find.
Oh I've had a couple that at first made me think "oh, really?" or "oh no". But, after further research they turned out to be okay. My research isn't over, so there's no telling what I'll find.
Family tales can be challenging.
My great grandmother I now know was born in Illinious. There is a babtismal record. Can't find anything about her then until she showed up in Iowa a long time later. But she married twice, according to my grandmother, an Irishman who seems to be acknowleged without much infromation, but grandma always lists her father as English. Mom said they were in correspondence with his sister in Manchester.
But you have Cristopher Smith of Ireland. Arrival date unknows. And Martin Smith of England. Arrival date unknown. The second husband died early and grandma never knew him. But she looks like him and her siblings don't look like her at all.
So. Having looked at shipping schedules and the like, nobody possibles unless she married a teenager, and much of her life after birth to adulthood being a black hole (family lore aside) I think this is going to be a really long term investigation....
Well, I'm not a racist and don't believe in slavery. It does bother me that this happened way back then and I know for a fact that some of my ancestors had slaves. If I had been born a white person into some time and place where slavery was an institution...I just don't know what kind of person I'd be. What has occurred to me is that often the slave owner ancestor thing is just more obvious than possible other really negative things in our ancestry. With many of my distant ancestors I know so little about them...names and dates, locations, children maybe, what some did for a living, a bit more if I'm really lucky. Would like to know more, just to get some idea about what was passed down over many years. Were they good people for the most part? But some could have been really pretty much evil people and I wouldn't know necessarily. The most important thing for me is my parents tried to be the best parents they could be. They just seemed like good people. That's what counts. Not the tree that goes way back to other long ago times and other lands. That tree is interesting...but what I am...that's more important to me.
I thought I'd stumbled onto one to be ashamed of; Looking at the 1910 census it has my great grandfather and his wife, with a daughter named Clara. In the 1920 census it shows that he has re-married and is now with "Clara"...
I was like "WAIT, WHAT". But on further inspection, the Clara in the 1910 census was 13 years old and the Clara in the 1920 census was 48, so clearly it's not the same one. lol whew
I really enjoyed reading this thread...so many interesting (and challenging) stories!
I can't really say I'm ashamed of any of my ancestors (perhaps with the exception of my sperm-donating, biological father, who dumped his wife (my mom) in a new city with a baby (me) and let her know he was leaving for good when he stopped slipping money under the door...) because we all must take responsibility for our life's choices. I will say however, that I have at least one g-grandmother born in 1885 who was...ahem...quite 'colorful.' After years of searching, I uncovered 5...yes, count 'em...5 marriages, but not 1 divorce. Hmmmmm... Well...ya know what they say: "A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!"
Haha. For 5 generations on both my paternal and maternal side, all of my ancestors came from the exact same town in Italy. My parents couldn't think of anyone that DIDN'T come from the town. Most did skilled trades, had stores, and did things that were appropriate for the era, time, and available educational opportunities.
Am I ashamed of any of them? Of course not. Are there some aunts and uncles that I dislike? Absolutely.
My maternal g-g-grandfather was in the KKK. There weren't a lot of African-Americans or other people of color around northeast PA during that time, so they mostly preached against Jews and Catholics.
My grandfather was raised by his grandparents because his mother was, from what I can piece together, a bit flaky and popular with the men. When my grandfather met my grandmother, who is Irish Catholic, she completely changed my g-g-grandfather's mind about "them Catholics" because "she was one hell of a pinochle player."
I'm not sure if he ended his relationship with the KKK after my grandparents married, but I think my grandmother lived with them for a short period of time so I'd imagine he must have. We also had an old Klansman's Manual in our family library. It was chilling how they justified their actions. The propaganda was frightening.
I'm not really ashamed of this, but I am ashamed when my mother and grandmother tried to justify his being in the KKK by saying "Oh, it was more like a social club around here." Ummm, no.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
