looking into the past

[the_siobhan]

Another link from improb.

An article in the Telegraph states that genealogists want psychotherapy to be made available for people who stumble across unpleasant discoveries while researching their family history.

Comes a time when there is a distinct advantage to already knowing that a sizable chunk of your ancestory comes from assholes.

Comments

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

That there is one big WTF moment.

"Oh my god, honey, my family is related to Jack the Ripper, Henry VIII, and George Washington! How will I cope with the shame of killing prostitutes, killing wives and dissolving religions, and owning slaves??? These people are related to me! There MUST be a genetic link!"

I don't think there should be psychotherapy, I think there should be an H&K P9 in every genealogy office in the country.

[ex-unagothae16.livejournal.com]

My mind boggles. I guess there's at least one benefit to disowning your entire family because there isn't one person in the lot who isn't a thief/drug addict/alcoholic/abusive son of a bitch. My mother only escaped when my dad died. My brother was protected by his developmental disability.

I'm just a stubborn bitch with my own emotional baggage cart.

Somedays I think it would be nice to be sheltered enough to be shocked by finding out there's a deranged criminal in my family tree.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think one should just be prepared for that kind of thing, if you're going to go looking & all that.

(Mostly descended from assholes here too).

[baratron.livejournal.com]

lol! Or at least, giggling out loud :)

Yeah, there are so many skeletons in the respective closets of the various bits of my families that it would take a lot to shock me - 'cos I already know that most of my family members are, or have been, utterly horrendous in the past. Apparently, there was a BBC programme recently where British "celebrities" (most of whom I'd never heard of) went to research their family history, and one woman discovered that her uncle had been born "out of wedlock", and burst into tears on air. I'm boggled, completely. That's just nothing compared to my grandfather running off with my grandmother's sister, and my dad ending up with half-siblings that are also his first cousins... and that's nowhere near the worst part of my family history.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I think that goes along with being descended from people, myself.

But I have been accused of being cynical. :-)

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Some people are just too a) sheltered, and b) precious to live.

[markeris.livejournal.com]

I`m trying to think of any horror in ones family history that deserves something more than a complimentary "grow the fuck up" on the way out and failing. I`m assuming here that genealogists are not the medium one would use to find ones biological parents (on the basis that in the absence of this knowledge a genealogist would be somewhat up shit creek anyway).

[kest]

What dumbasses. Making odd discoveries is half the fun.

While going through family history papers recently, I found a copy of a birth certificate for a baby born in NY in 1914. About the right time to be my grandfather's older brother. Mother's name, same as grandfather's mother's name. Father's name: Charlie (family last name). Problem is, grandfather's father's name was Solomon. Nobody in the currently living family has any idea who the hell Charlie is. And if he's no relation, why do we have the birth certificate? (It was in my grandmother's papers.) Very mysterious.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Somedays I think it would be nice to be sheltered enough to be shocked by finding out there's a deranged criminal in my family tree.

I so want to quote this. :-)

[ex-unagothae16.livejournal.com]

Please, feel free :)

If you would like to attribute it, I prefer `Una :)