Family History: Worthy of Remembering and Recording

Welcome to my Family History Blog!

When I mention my passion for Family History to many people I often get a reaction involving the rolling of eyes and some mumbled phrase such as, "How boring!"

Apparently that reaction is not new.  I recently came across the following quote (while doing family history research) in the book A Parochial History of Enstone, in the County of Oxford, written by John Jordan, and first published in London in 1857. (Examine the book online here: http://bit.ly/9aqwJx).

Jordan wrote, "It is hardly possible to conceive anything more apparently uninteresting and more unpromising of either entertainment or instruction than a volume of parochial register. Continuous lists of children born and baptized, of couples married, and of persons buried, certainly seem little likely to have much in them to encourage our perusal and study of them." (punctuation added)

Of course, I couldn't disagree more.  I recognize I'm in the minority in this, but I would find a 'volume of parochial register' of extreme interest.  As evidence of the same I cite the fact that I have in my home several hundred microfiche containing parochial [parish] registers of such wonderful places as Cold Higham, Pattishall, Potterspury, Blakesley, and Gretton in Northamptonshire; and of Wigston Magna, Fleckney, and Great Glen in Leicestershire.  Oh, and a microfiche reader in my home office (thanks eBay).

However, I can hear my family exclaiming their approval of Mr. Jordan's observation.  Perhaps you agree.

But, I set you up.  What you read above was not the end of John Jordan's quote.  He also states, " . . . yet these same lists if well digested and abstracted are . . . capable of directing us to matters that may illustrate the past and that are worthy of being remembered and recorded." And, more importantly, I would add that they direct us to people who illustrate our own past and are worthy of being remembered and recorded.

In this blog, I will share with you some of my findings relating to my ancestry that I feel are worthy of remembering and recording.  Some postings will be about specific people in my past; others about people with whom I have connected in the present as I researched their and my common past; still others about places of interest from my family history (such as Enstone, of which John Jordan wrote); and finally postings about what I have learned about how to research the past.

Hopefully you'll find my blog to be worthy of a better evaluation than John Jordan's description of the parochial registers.  I welcome your comments or suggestions.

Regards,
Steve