Seeing the Present, Reliving the Past

There is a tenet of geology called uniformitarianism, also known as the doctrine of uniformity: that the Earth’s geologic processes have acted in the same manner and with essentially the same intensity in the past as they do in the present and that such uniformity is sufficient to account for all geologic change.

To turn it to genealogy, I think that every generation has reacted in the same way as we do today. The love and pride and awe that we feel toward our children and grandchildren must have been the same feelings our ancestors had in their children and grandchildren. The guidance and help that they gave to their families was no different than we strive to give to our families.

As our grandchildren are reaching their adulthood, we are now seeing how their interests, talents and abilities are now showing in their academic achievements and their choices of careers. I think we are gaining quite different ideas of them as people. They are no longer the cuddly infants we were so happy to see take their first breath or the happy faces they had at birthday parties. We are realizing that they have dreams and aspirations as we did and are entering that time of life when they can take charge of their own lives.

We went past the times when our children moved into the world on their own with a sense of pride but also of worry. You never stop being concerned about the welfare of your children. Being one more step removed is a happier place as it is your children that can keep the fearfulness and let you just enjoy the pleasurable moments.

Our family photo albums are filled with pictures of us with our children, occasionally also including grandparents. Rarely, though do we have photos depicting more than three generations.

I know that my grandparents were proud of their children and their grandchildren. I heard those sentiments directly. I can’t help but think my 8^th great-grandfather, Nicholas Shepheard – he is as far back as I can get at present – might have had the same feelings about his children. Unfortunately, he did not live to see any of his grandchildren. In fact, neither did any of my 7^th or 6^th great-grandfathers (or their wives) in my Shepheard line live to see grandchildren.

The first of my Shepheard ancestors to know his grandchildren was Richard Shepheard (1726-1803), a 5^th great-grandfather. He and his wife, Mary Collins, had seven children in Cornwood, Devon, England. All of them married, six of them also in Cornwood, and had children. There were 53 grandchildren spread across the seven families, all but seven of them also born in Cornwood. Of those 28 were born before the death of Richard and he would have known them all.

The number of people in a family and, thus, the number of grandchildren or great-grandchildren one might have today is much smaller. People also marry a bit later in life than they did several hundred years ago. Still, we have a few families where several generations co-exist.

My Aunt Ethel, who is still with us, had four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, three step-great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. Her family may not be through yet giving her descendants while she is alive, either.

Aunt Ethel’s family in 1997 (along with my wife and daughter); not all of Ethel’s family could be there that day.

My oldest sister had four children, all of them married although only three had children of their own. She had nine grandchildren and three step-grandchildren, all of whom were born before she died. And she had three great-grandchildren while she was still with us.

Lynn’s family in 2003 – three generations present

My next oldest sister, Sharon, has two daughters, five grandchildren and now two great-granddaughters. We are not beating the Shepheard record books but four generations alive at the same time is still impressive.

Sharon with one of her daughters, two of her granddaughters and her two great-granddaughters in 2021

My youngest sister, Janice, understandably has a younger family. She is just getting to know who her grandchildren might become but is a long way away from the next generation.

Janice’s family in 2019 with all but one of her grandchildren

It’s a pattern that repeated itself in future generation as most of the Shepheard families stayed in the area until my 2^nd great-grandfather. Because of their connection of all the families to the parish, we might surmise that they had a closeness between them as well.

That might not have always been the case with every individual. If you look at your own families you may well find that people grow apart as well as move apart. But there is no reason to think that relationships within individual families or between cousins who lived in the same area were any different that similarly related families today. They may even have been closer than we are, as many probably attended schools together, married in the same church, and worked in similar or related occupations.

We cannot know for sure how our ancestors got along or whether they fully supported each other, but I would suggest that they had at least the same loving relationships as we see in families today. Not that there would not have been disagreements or the odd falling out. They were just as human as we are in that regard.

In most respects I think we can see what the past was like by looking at our families today. Call it the genealogical theory of uniformitarianism.

In our family we are still only at the grandchildren level. But as I started off saying here, we are seeing them rapidly reaching their adulthood and looking to take charge of their own lives. It’s fun to see that and rewarding as well to realize that we must have done something right for our children to succeed and for their children to be on the cusp on doing as well with their endeavors.

Wayne and Linda with their children (except for one who could not be there) and grandchildren

Old Musical Instruments

Did your ancestors play music? What kinds of instruments did they learn? Have you carried on these traditions?

I am a horn player, in particular a brass horn. I wrote about that in a blog post in April 2017 titled Music is in Our Blood. I took lessons from the age of about eight. For years in high school and after university graduation I play a valve trombone. I acquired it from my old music teacher and is a prized possession. Maybe one day I will get back to playing it.

But I have always been interested in antique instruments and how and when music was first played.

My daughter-in-law sent this link to me about a Glass Harmonica or Armonica (thank you Alice). I had not seen or heard one before. This YouTube video shows expert Dennis James demonstrating the instrument. Glass Armonica (spinning glass bowls... that break) - YouTube

They are amazing instruments that I learned go back hundreds of years. It was apparently invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. Musical tones are produced by friction from fingers sliding along the edges of glass bowls of different sizes and they spin. The instrument type is called a friction idiophone.

You can get the same effect using glass goblets partially filled with water to tune them.

Special music was written for these instruments, including by the world’s great composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (in 1791) and Ludvig van Beethoven (in 1814).

Glass armonicas were produced for public use through the 19^th and 20^th centuries, although not in great quantities. They still are produced commercially by G. Finkbeiner Inc. of Waltham, MA, a maker of glass lab ware. GFI Scientific glass blowing products and services (finkenbeiner.com)

Here is a video of Dennis James in concert: Adagio for Glass Harmonica, K 356, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - YouTube

Musical instruments, of course, go back thousands of years. Every society and culture have had their own traditional types and styles.

·         Trumpets were found in Tutankhamun’s crypt (about 3,340 years old).

·         Flutes, made from bones may have been the earliest instruments used by humans specifically used to make musical sounds. Some found in China may be 9,000 years old. Other found in Europe go back 35,000 years. One found in Germany probably dates to 40,000 years and another in Slovenia is estimated at over 43,000 years.

·         Lithophones are made of rocks of varying sizes that produce sound when struck. Some found in India and Vietnam are estimated at between 4,000 and 10,000 years old.

·         Bullroarers are made of thin slats of wood attached to a stout cord and may go back to Palaeolithic times (18,000 years). When swung in a large circle they emit a roaring sound (thus the name). They have been found on every continent.

·         Blowing through holes drilled into conchs (seashells) have been known to produce sounds for about 18,000 years.

·         Stringed instruments may also go back several thousand years although they are only really known from about the 9^th century.

Violins and their cousins date from the 16^th century. The most famous is probably the Stradivarius, made by Antonia Stradivari (1644-1737). Their pure and unique tone is thought to be due, largely, to the dense and very fine-grained wood they were made from. During the colder years of the Little Ice Age, trees grew much slower, resulting in narrow annual bands. These materials (spruce, willow and maple) were thus more uniform in structure and more dense.

The Archangel Gabriel, of course, had a horn. That story would take us back several thousand years. If you would like to see an interesting sculpture of him, check out this video. Chocolate Angel - Bing video

Reminiscing

Every once in a while, you see a picture or hear a joke that reminds you of your childhood, or stories told by your parents or grandparents about their childhood.

I sent out a funny pic recently, concerning the current leader of Russia, to friends around the world and got back a reminiscence from one about a Dunny Man. I had never heard the term before but apparently it is a term common to many parts of the world, or at least to places in the British Empire.

Chris noted that “Australians of my age affectionately remember the age of the ‘dunny can’, which would be positioned under a wooden seat in the ‘dunny’ (or out-house) and be collected weekly by the ‘dunny man’.  It was a true ‘poo tin’. I’m afraid the photo you posted, about a receptacle for dog droppings, does not capture the romance associated with our ‘dunny can’.  For example, my mum would always leave a generous Christmas donation for the ‘dunny man’, much more than she left for the garbage man, because she reckoned the ‘dunny man’ always looked cleaner. Whenever I couldn’t find mum, my day would say she had run off with the ‘dunny man’.”

So, of course, I did a Google search for the term. There are all kinds of stories and even books written about the subject. Blog posts too! Who knew?

For my part, I remember outhouses on my grandparents’ farm, and using the Eaton’s catalogue for toilet paper, but being a city kid, we always had indoor plumbing. The outhouses on the prairie were all built over deep holes that were filled in and a new one dug every few years. My dad used to tell stories of Halloween pranks involving pushing the outhouse back a yard or two to catch unsuspecting people out for a moonlight potty trip. I can't even imagine what that was like for those who might have been caught, although I suspect farmers were all too aware of what could happen. No, my dad would never have done such a thing!

Another friend in England told me this story: “I had a tough elderly aunt who lived in a listed cottage out in the Warwickshire countryside.  I used to spend holidays with her in the ‘60s and she had a dunny can as did most of her neighbours.  The lovely council eventually compromised on the medieval local situation and installed covered cesspits alongside the quaint old buildings but it was up to the owners to install proper toilet facilities!  Auntie Gert was a tireless worker for the Royal British Legion and would walk from house to house every year selling poppies.  One neighbour had had their ces-pit emptied but the workman had neglected to replace the cover and one year Auntie fell in on a dark night.  She clung to the edge by her fingertips for about an hour, calling out for help in the cold and dark until someone went into their kitchen to make a cup of tea and heard her!  She had to be taken to hospital to be cleaned and rested but she had the ‘shakes’ for the rest of her life.” Boy, who wouldn’t?

Funny how pics we see or jokes we hear now stimulate those of us who are mature enough to remember the "olden days" if the '50s can qualify. The closest I can come is having seen milk men with their horse-drawn wagons delivering daily dairy products. Back then the joke was who might have been the result of a liaison of moms and milkmen or whether a lady ran away with one.

Outhouses are still in use in many parts of the world, or at the summer cabin where sewer lines have yet to be extended. You can buy elaborate plans to build them or even DIY kits from companies like Home Hardware. Ready-made units are available to just hall away and set up. Often however, they are marketed as Storage Sheds or as environment-saving products.

For fun do a search for “outhouse kits” and look at the dozens of images that pop up. One site you might come up with is called Morning Chores.

Reminiscing adds many things to your own family history, events and stories you thought you forgot or that did not seem all that important. What we might remember growing up is part of the fabric of our own lives. And if you can recall stories your own parents told you of everyday life, that really adds important pieces to your ancestral mosaic.

Like Outhouses!