Family Traditions

It's interesting how family traditions, while not always "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth", almost always have some truth in them.

My grandchildren had a great great great grandmother on their mother's side named Caroline. There was a family tradition that her name Caroline came from an ancestor of hers who was given the name Fortunate Caroline Skorkiona [sic] Jones BUCKBURD.  The story goes that Fortunate Caroline was newly born when she and her mother were shipwrecked en route to Malta at the time of Queen Caroline (presumably the popular Caroline of Brunswick, 1768 -1821, wife of George IV).

Malta - View Larger Map

The tradition said that:

• her first name came from her good fortune in surviving the shipwreck; 
• her second from the then Queen; 
• her third from the name of the ship that was wrecked; 
• and her fourth name from that of the captain of the ship.

Well, that's the tradition. Interestingly, later research showed Caroline's mother to be Sarah Jones BUGBURD, born in Malta about 1814, and her father to be Thomas BUGBURD, "mariner". There is also a Skorpiona in Greece, about 4 km from the coast. So it appears that the tradition was firmly based on the truth, even though, like Chinese Whispers, it had changed somewhat in the course of telling. I've not found any record of the wreck, though...

Skorpiona, Greece - View Larger Map

Meanwhile my own daughter was named after two of her great grandmothers, so she's a Caroline too.

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"I like narrative storytelling as being part of a tradition, a folk tradition." 

Bruce Springsteen 

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DNA

DNA and Family History - what's it all about?

This work has been 

released into the public domain

by its author brian0918.

For some time now I've been trying to find out more about DNA and genealogy/family history. I've been following threads on the DNA lists at Rootsweb:-
DNA‑NEWBIE and GENEALOGY-DNA.
The former is at about my level and has fewer posts (45 posts in August 2012), the latter is more technical and has more posts (over 700 in the same period.). I don't understand everything on GENEALOGY-DNA but it's a good way of picking up the jargon and the issues. If there's any jargon I don't understand I just look it up on Google - the answers come up pretty quickly!

There are also some good blogs on the subject such as Your Genetic Genealogist,  DNAeXplained, and The Genetic Genealogist. So I've been slowly going up the learning curve.

Not all DNA testing is the same

One thing I have discovered - genealogical DNA testing is not at all the same thing as forensic DNA testing or medical DNA testing. The tests are quite different and are specific enough for companies to specialise in their own particular fields.

One company that consistently seems to have good reports for genealogical DNA testing is Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). So when I heard that FTDNA were having a flash sale this weekend (ending 30 September 2012) I jumped at it.

Why DNA test?

Well, why am I doing family history at all? Partly because of all the fascinating family stories. Not just the success stories, but also the dramas - the sudden deaths in war and peace. Not just the people who stayed at home and brought up families in town and country, but also the intrepid ones who emigrated to new lands. Not just the ones who owned land and left a clear paper (or parchment) trail behind them, but also the illiterate farm labourers who were their tenants.

There's also the fascination of the way in which their stories run parallel with the history of their times; the changes -  political, economic and social - through which they lived. For example, my own father was born before the Wright brothers' made their first flight and lived to see the first humans land on the moon.

But my main reason is to be able to leave to my children and, more particularly, my grandchildren, as much as I can of their roots. The same goes for all close family members, especially my siblings and their descendants, who are interested.

William Dollarhide said, "A relative is someone with all the information about the family you want, but who died last week." This actually happened with me in 1989 with a cousin, the last of her line. We hadn't met before but had agreed to meet that summer holiday and talk family. When I finally had a suitable date I phoned her to confirm that it would suit her. I was greeted with an unfamiliar voice. My cousin had died the previous week and they had just that morning burned all the family photographs and items which could not go for sale in the house clearance. So William Dollarhide's quotation is not just a dry comment; it really can happen.

I see my DNA data in a similar way. The story it tells may be more general than the oral tradition and the written stories, but it can go back much further. As with my own memories my DNA travels with and, for all practical purposes, dies with me. So, so long as I don't pop my clogs before I have sent my swab samples off, that story will be available to my descendants. It's too late for my children to get the story told by their grandparents' DNA but it won't be too late for them to have mine.

What next?

First thing, I had to pay for the test. Ouch! Still, at least a substantial offer price eases the pain. I chose the Family Finder + mtFullSequence package while it was on discount. FTDNA say that this uses "the Full Mitochondrial Sequence (FMS) test to learn about the maternal line origin and find matches in your direct maternal line" and the "Family Finder Test to help you find family across all your lines lines up to 6 generations back".

Next, FTDNA will send me swabs so that I can collect cheek samples and sent them back for analysis. This can take some time, partly because FTDNA  end the swabs off in rotation; I am not sure how long the queue is but no doubt it will take a good week or two since they have the promotion on. Then there is the time taken for the package to arrive here in the UK from Houston, Texas; the time taken for the parcel to arrive back there from here after I have taken the swabs; and finally the time taken for FTDNA to process the samples. Then they email me to let me know my results. Could be quite a while...

Watch this space!

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"The spiral in a snail's shell is the same mathematically as the spiral in the Milky Way galaxy, and it's also the same mathematically as the spirals in our DNA. It's the same ratio that you'll find in very basic music that transcends cultures all over the world."

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

"It's good to know where you come from. It makes you what you are today. It's DNA, it's in your blood."

Alexander McQueen

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Susannah HILL's sampler

Almost 200 years ago my great great grandmother Susannah HILL, then aged nine, stitched a sampler. It has remained in the family ever since. After all that time it was looking rather faded and tired. Time for it to have some tender loving care.

Susannah HILL's sampler

Kennis Kim's book Conserving, Preserving and Restoring Your Heritage included some pointers on caring for samplers and made it clear that it was a professional and not a DIY job. Time to find a conservator.

I started at the Institute of Conservation (ICON) web site and struck gold immediately. Less than an hour's drive away was The Landi Company, specialists in textile conservation and restoration. Ann and I duly made an appointment to deliver the sampler to them at their workshop located in the Stable Courtyard at Burghley House, just outside Stamford. The surroundings were impressive enough; equally impressive inside the workshop was the wide range of strange-looking and specialised equipment.

Stable Courtyard, Burghley House

When Sheila Landi emailed us to say the sampler was ready, we went to collect it. What a difference! The colours were now clear and vibrant, the background clean and bright, and the sampler correctly aligned behind the old Victorian glass. A full report described the process of removing the sampler from its frame, cleaning and repairing the sampler and remounting it back in its frame.

Behind the sampler she had found a small fragment of text and carefully mounted it on a material backing. Unfortunately the text was not complete and a transcript was not possible, though the name (Hill) is quite clear. 

Fragment of text found behind the sampler

So a wonderful item of family history has been renewed for future generations.

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"No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language."

Theodore Bikel

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Kempes Hall Today

Chris Kemp very kindly gave me permission to insert these two pictures taken by him of Kempes Hall (see my previous post) today. The first shows the front of the building. 

This view is of the rear of the building - the long narrow extension on the right of the picture may have been the old school rooms.

Thanks, Chris!

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Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.

B. F. Skinner (1904 - 1990), New Scientist, May 21, 1964

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Kemps Hall Academy, Boughton Aluph, Kent

My great grandfather was at school here in the early 1840s. How do I know? Well, I have a school exercise book of his, written in beautiful copperplate.

Way back in 1999, I posted an enquiry on a Kent bulletin board asking if anyone knew where Kemps Hall was. Twelve years later Matthew has contacted me about my enquiry.

Matthew is the present occupant of the Hall and has very kindly told me that it is now known as Kempes Hall and was originally listed as a 16th Century Manor house.  In the 1800s it became a private boarding school for approximately 40 boys. By 1918 however it was sold as part of a lot from the Eastwell Park estate by which time it had been converted into 6 cottages. It is now a single private residence.

Boughton Aluph is here, three miles north east of Ashford in Kent.

Thanks, Matthew!