Family History Frolics

I do love "doing" my family history, or rather, exploring the people who came before me and whose blood runs through my veins. I find it so interesting, the digging, and definitely frustrating at times, but when you get a breakthrough it's a big YAY!!!!! Just makes my day.

I have just sent off for 2 more death certificates, one is my great-grandmother, and the other is her mother. They are on my maternal grandfather's side of the family, his mother and his grandmother.

It is sad that I had no connection with my father, as I have started working on his side and have found out quite a bit about him from my sibling from his marriage, but because I didn't know him or his parents, the interest is somewhat less than it is for my mother's side, the grandparents who raised me when I was young, and whose stories I listened to growing up.

This is one of my favourite pictures of my granpop, Edward Lewis, as a young man, with his younger brother, George. Despite having had the photo for over 30 years, the identity of the younger person in the photo was only discovered last year. I had always thought my granpop was the youngest child.

His side of the family history has always been quite private so discovering a lot of it was quite difficult, added to which the last name, Lewis, and first names of the children, William, John, Edward, and Matilda, that I was searching for. Such common names at the beginning of the twentieth century, and worse, so many families within the same area!

What I have discovered on his side, has made me more aware of the genetic influence on my health.

He died of an aortic aneurysm in 1978. As yet, I have not been able to identify his father's death so know nothing about it. However, his mother's father, George Burton, died of "cerebral congestion, 8 days" which, on further research, seems to implicate high blood pressure/stroke.

Unfortunately, on my grandmother's side of the family (his wife, Rose nee Poyser),  she died in 1981 of a haemorrhagic stroke, her father Samuel Poyser died of a heart attack and her mother (Mary Ann nee Hunt) "suddenly at home" so it seems cardio-vascular stuff isn't good on her side, either.

And then, her mother's father, Charles Hunt, had bronchitis, asthma and heart failure.  He is the first (so far) that I have found with asthma, which my mother, my son, my granddaughter and myself, have all suffered from.

Having my DNA tested also provided interesting information on the possible origins of my blood type. I am O Negative, and that seems to be more prevalent in an area in the Iberian Peninsula than anywhere else in the world, cementing that with the DNA areas that make up my ancestral origins.

Likewise, my red hair. Despite me being English born (English through and through, as I thought) 39% of my DNA is Irish and only 28% is from Great Britain, the rest moves off to the East.  I've always said we English are a bunch of mongrels, we were conquered by so many, Danes, Vikings, Gauls, Romans, Goths and Visigoths, and more than I can remember. All of whom raped and pillaged as they went.

Other interesting things that have come to light concerning my hair and blood group - red headed people tend to bleed more easily (explaining my haemorrhage after having my son) and also can have issues with pain killing meds (as I have done) whereby the drugs that work on others make no difference to my pain (one of the reasons I now use essential oils). It was quite fascinating, answering unasked questions but putting many things to rest with an "ahhh ok".

I've been delving now for 23 years, and still so much more to discover.

Enjoy your day