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From: "Pam Downes" <>
Subject: Re: ESSEX-UK-D Digest V04 #271. Message #6. Colleen Morrison
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 21:13:35 +0100
References: <8.561aae6d.2e677b60@aol.com>


Hi Colleen,

I have to say that I think Bill 's summary was brilliant, especially as he
carefully differentiated between working and helping.
Certainly if you were talking through some of the things you might uncover
in your research you could say things like 'what would your reaction be if I
found one of your relatives in a lunatic asylum'. If the reply is 'it would
upset me', then I don't think that person is ready to research their family
history because life was very different then to nowadays. It's not that long
ago that I read in the newspaper that someone had been in a mental hospital
for very many years, and yet their problem was not a mental condition just a
learning difficulty.
Again, if anyone would have problems if an ancestor may have been a convict,
murderer, illegitimate, committed suicide, etc - they are not ready for
genealogy. Life for the everyday person wasn't elegant Georgian houses, or
thatched cottages. Life was no running water and children aged 5 working in
factories.

Pam Downes



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