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The Skeletons Have Meat
By Maree Amor of Textworx
Our family research has led us to the realisation that we descend from a curious mixture of royalty, a few thieves and several bastards. (Yes, I know many would say they're synonymous...) The royal line takes us back to many European ancestors, plus people like William the Conquerer and subsequent English kings and queens. I now know that I am a 17th cousin to Queen Elizabeth II, so I shall have to drop in to say "hello" and share some of one's best tea and cucumber sandwiches when next in the Old Dart. That line aside, plus some Scottish and Irish ancestors, I also descend from the "bête noire" of the English - yes, the French! My first French ancestor to venture to Australia was my ggg grandfather who was born at the height of the French Revolution. Born "un batard" back in mother France, he had always claimed he was born aboard a British ship which aided his parents' flight to safety. He did this to claim British citizenship in order to import tea into Australia via a British-registered ship. To cut a long story short, ggg grandfather was probably "borne" aboard a British ship in the Caribbean where the British came to Martinique to invade in 1793. He came to be there because his mother accompanied the man we think was his father, a French soldier, sent to defend the island. It's a complicated story, but essentially, on this occasion there was much collusion between some French and English factions (the old "you scratch my back, je rayerai le vôtre"), and many civilians were lifted to safety before the battle proper commenced. Sadly his father lost his head to a British cannon ball; an incident documented in detail in General Rochambeau's journal of the siege, which is quite a fascinating read in itself. So, if anyone wants to know more about Caribbean history during the French Revolution, I could just about write a book, but thankfully a few others before me have done so. Mine would be heavily-laden with my ancestral details, but it would make a great story of intrigue, adventure, death and survival. I don't think that many in this day and age could match the strength, determination and will to survive that people displayed during bygone eras such as this. It is also amazing that our ancestors travelled so far and so frequently - and all by ship, no doubt enduring many testing and perilous conditions, including the menacing from the real pirates of the Caribbean! In fact, the more I think about it, I could fill the pages of a book with real accounts about people not only surviving during this time, but profiting greatly from the slave trade and smuggling of all manner of things into the Lesser Antilles - all this just from doing family research! Yes, history really comes to life once you start to dig and tracing your family can turn out to be anything but a dry old "names and dates" affair, as I've found out in spades. I (and no doubt many genealogists) find myself immersed in their lives, wanting to know where and how they lived. The smallest clue can send you on a completely new search, often with astounding results, especially these days with so many digitised records published online. For example, sifting through all the old French parish records is fascinating as we are able to see the actual pages and handwriting. Many relating to my family go back to the early 17th century. At first, reading and translating these is a daunting task, but as with anything, practice makes it easier. Of course, "un petit peu" of French is required to know exactly what the records reveal - and essentially they show people don't change very much over centuries, with many illegitimate children being born, but nonetheless loved and baptised by the church. As the French would say "plus ca change" - or the more things change, the more they stay the same. After all the toils and troubles experienced by our ancestors, we have probably all reaped the benefits of whatever they did. Even my convict ancestors who came to Australia in the dreadful, squalid conditions on British ships, eventually made good and some were even pardoned. Some of them married well and raised very well-respected offspring who became pillars of early Australian society. So, if any of you have any doubts about whether to find out about your ancestors, you are almost guaranteed to uncover some fascinating details, including some skeletons. However, every single one will have a lot of meat on their bones, and the stories you can discover may change your life. Now, where's cousin Elizabeth's phone number? |
Textworx
| de Mestre family history
| pHunny Science
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