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Judging ancestors is a bit like judging a crime in the Crime forums where only minimal, and very likely biased, facts are known. And too, applying today's social and economic standards to our ancestors can be academically entertaining but certainly not very logical.
Any family historian who has accumulated a significant number of ancestors in their data and has not discovered thieves (bad) along with royalty (good) just hasn't looked very hard. Then again, by today's social standards, the two could be one and the same.
Research done with a judgmental eye will always result in obviously biased results and will not survive objective peer review.
Judging ancestors is a bit like judging a crime in the Crime forums where only minimal, and very likely biased, facts are known. And too, applying today's social and economic standards to our ancestors can be academically entertaining but certainly not very logical.
Any family historian who has accumulated a significant number of ancestors in their data and has not discovered thieves (bad) along with royalty (good) just hasn't looked very hard. Then again, by today's social standards, the two could be one and the same.
Research done with a judgmental eye will always result in obviously biased results and will not survive objective peer review.
My known ancestors are not famous or important, but I know about what they went through in their lives, how being hauled in chains as a covict didn't stop one from when he could grasping all the chances of a good life he could, how one was burned out in Missouri right after the civil war began and came back after to start again, how they were people who didn't let misfortune stop them from keeping the dream. They were probably people with things about them we'd find objectional based on OUR perception, but the best inheritance is the lesson they left in how they lived life. I'd remind myself of them when things seemed too lost or too impossible, especially my grandmothers and their mothers. Both were raised by just their mothers, after the father died or dissapeared when that was not the norm.
I think we should always remember that the standard will change we live by, and someday someone could be looking at us and judging us by some standard we wouldn't even understand.
My grandfather fought in the German army (Wehrmacht) in WW2. His father was wounded badly in WW1. He could not have joined the SS as although he was highly assimilated he was still a jew.
But he still answered his nations call as a German-as did many other German jews.
Why would I be ashamed of this? He fought honorably for his country against Communism. I would not expect modern Americans to understand, but he had the Prussian military code of honor to live in and was not responsible for the jackoff he was taking orders from...like every other soldier in history.
The so called German Jews that served in the German military would have been heavily assimilated into Germany. In addition they would have looked Aryan.
I am new to genealogy and have already encountered some pretty nasty stories of domestic violence, abuse, and even incest. (And that was all in just one patriarchal line!) Still, I take it all with a grain of salt because I know that it is common for people to gossip about the outrageous and never pass on the good stuff others do. (Maybe I should try to research THAT! )
All in all, I would say that you have to judge a group on their results -- and that would be the descendants, right? For the most part, I am darned glad for the family I have, no matter where their roots came from.
Fwiw in the early 1800s it was not rare for men in their 20s to marry 14yos. My paternal GM was 16 when she started dating my GF, who was 32. This was in a very rural area mind you. My maternal grandparents were from the city. They had an arranged marriage. Which is worse?
None that I know of,family tree goes back to early 1800's to the steel mills of Wolverhampton England which at that time some were indentured apprentices.My father was born in January 1884,had a brother who was in the Klondike gold rush of which I have copies.He survived this to only die in auto accident around 1920.
My sisters daughter has run the tree all the way back to Charmane whoever that is,never talked to her about her endeavor.
We do have Federal soldier buried in Gettysburg on mothers side.
1) was lynched by a group of Jesuit priests about 1800 in Illinois. That takes some doing.
2) left his wife and 11 children to marry his first cousin
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