No Pride, No Shame, No Credit, No Blame

The above is a common reference to a good attitude toward genealogical study. Take no pride, no shame, no credit and no blame for the actions, accomplishments and ways of life of your ancestors. They’re them, you’re you.

But you don’t really want to speak ill of the dead, either. So what do you do when people in your family just plain did bad stuff? Do you talk about it when they aren’t here to tell you about it for themselves – either the reasons or the other side of it? Can you try to write about it without being judgmental? It’s one thing to have horse thieves in your family (ho-hum), it’s another when people were sexually abusive. But best of luck trying to abuse Great Aunt Totally Rocks.

Great Aunt Totally Rocks wrote down all of the genealogical information she had and transcribed the family bible for my mother. They also talked for hours and GATR filled in many blanks and told many family history stories. One of them was of visiting one of her sisters when she was a teenager. The sister’s husband touched her inappropriately and she stomped him. As in, he came up behind her and touched her so she lifted her foot, smashed it into his and dug down. And it was hardly the only time GATR defended herself like this.

One of my favorite stories of her is a time she was at work in the 50s or 60s and a boss came over to talk to her and put his arm around her waist while doing so. She yelled, loud enough for the entire office to hear, “Keep your God damned hands off me.” No one there ever touched her again. See? There are ways to address sexual harassment on the personal level. Forget courtrooms, GATR just took it offline with people and nailed them to the wall. Totally love GATR. GATR? I take pride in GATR.

Also, I have come up with a tentative framework for  my family history project. I’m going to take each generation as a chapter of the book and explore what we know about the families through census, military, church, public and other records and weave into that social and political histories of their times. For instance, in the first generation for which we have data – Nicholas Schryer and Mary Eastwood – I’m going to talk about their church, the Dutch Reformed Church, about the political climate (the Revolutionary War and perhaps more importantly the conflict over Vermont. Crimany, but it was a big deal back then), and the town they lived in. The project will be self-printed and is in memory of my grandparents. (BTW, the primary crop in their town when they were there was wheat. Don’t need no stinkin’ New England history after all).

Also, did you know that many Germans and French Huegenots  attended Dutch Reformed Churches in the colonies because their Calvinist churches in Europe also adhered to the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563? Hah, it’s true.