Swinging

Through the family tree again.

Much to my surprise - and chagrin - I've found some felons. Yep. A number of the ancestors spent some time in the pokey - some more than once. One was transported as a convict to Taswegia... sorry, Tasmania. I don't know what for, he's not a direct ancestor, but I plan to find out.

I find it smirk-worthy because my ever-so staid, stiff-necked, proper and social-climbing grandmother married into the family (snicker, snicker). If she'd known about her husband's grandmother's generation, I doubt she would have touched him with a barge-pole! (Gotta be respectable; what would the neighbour's think?)

I can only imagine how tough times were in the farming communities of England. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing, depriving workers of their livelihoods and struggling to feed large families. Not that I condone their felonious ways, but it must have been bad.

I've found one family who moved from county to county selling bricks; another who, as single men, left Ireland for Scotland then down the English coast and inland to work the mines. That family landed in Lancashire and from there, to Australia. No wonder they wanted a better life. It took them a century and a half from Ireland to Australia, but here I am.

The felonious side spent two hundred years in Gloucestershire before coming here; I suppose to escape the 'tradition' of petty crime.

So now, I've found a couple of criminals, a few heroes, a deserter and an adventurer or two. With a little more information, I'll be able to sit down and the write the history of the family for future generations.