Family History

(Argh! That is the second time it has let me write a big long post before then informing me I've got to log in... I keep forgetting and have to write it all out twice!)

Yes, thankfully I’m not really one to bow to peer pressure. The cousin who doesn’t like being corrected now doesn’t get one iota of my research. The husband did not get his GEDCOM. The cousin who accepted my gentle questioning of her research now gets occasional bits of relevant information from me about people and mysteries in the family. I would be willing to re-send all the certs and information to the other cousin if he’d be willing to suck it up and give me his new contact details. It is his loss really- he spent decades looking for one of our relatives in Ireland and I’ve since found him conclusively in Northumberland and he still doesn’t know.

One thing that surprised me about the court case (and I reckon surprised him too!) was that despite admitting he did it, having his shipmates witness him doing it, having the police turn up seconds later and seeing him there, he was found not guilty. I think it was on the basis of the fact he was blind drunk and the other guy had been persistently provoking him until he snapped. The victim was extremely lucky to have survived- he wasn’t expected to. I never found out what happened to the guy after the court case was over. He must have been deeply unhappy with the verdict to say the least. At any rate, even though Mark “got away with it”, I notice that there were no further children after the event, his wife died 6 years later in her brother’s house, who then raised her children, and there is no evidence of Mark being involved with the family after then. Later on still, his only son died in a mining accident aged 18, his daughter was widowed and lost her baby aged 21, and the only surviving grandchild, from whom I’m descended, was born in the workhouse, creating an inspirational story by rising up the ladder to be quite well off in the colliery business, potentially owning property and winning lots of prizes at the fruit and veg show...

(Argh! That is the second time it has let me write a big long post before then informing me I've got to log in... I keep forgetting and have to write it all out twice!)

Yes, thankfully I’m not really one to bow to peer pressure. The cousin who doesn’t like being corrected now doesn’t get one iota of my research. The husband did not get his GEDCOM. The cousin who accepted my gentle questioning of her research now gets occasional bits of relevant information from me about people and mysteries in the family. I would be willing to re-send all the certs and information to the other cousin if he’d be willing to suck it up and give me his new contact details. It is his loss really- he spent decades looking for one of our relatives in Ireland and I’ve since found him conclusively in Northumberland and he still doesn’t know.

One thing that surprised me about the court case (and I reckon surprised him too!) was that despite admitting he did it, having his shipmates witness him doing it, having the police turn up seconds later and seeing him there, he was found not guilty. I think it was on the basis of the fact he was blind drunk and the other guy had been persistently provoking him until he snapped. The victim was extremely lucky to have survived- he wasn’t expected to. I never found out what happened to the guy after the court case was over. He must have been deeply unhappy with the verdict to say the least. At any rate, even though Mark “got away with it”, I notice that there were no further children after the event, his wife died 6 years later in her brother’s house, who then raised her children, and there is no evidence of Mark being involved with the family after then. Later on still, his only son died in a mining accident aged 18, his daughter was widowed and lost her baby aged 21, and the only surviving grandchild, from whom I’m descended, was born in the workhouse, creating an inspirational story by rising up the ladder to be quite well off in the colliery business, potentially owning property and winning lots of prizes at the fruit and veg show...