The Industrious Revolution - My Latest Article

My latest article, published in Family Tree magazine (UK), is about the Industrious Revolution. It was the period leading up to the more well-known Industrial Revolution which encompassed a change from an economy focused on agriculture and handcraft production to one dominated by powered machinery and centralized, mass production industries.

Read a bit more about how the event may have impacted your ancestors and get your own copy of the magazine here. The September issue is filled with many more informative and entertaining articles.

The Little Ice Age and Genealogy

 In many of my articles and presentations I emphasize the importance of recognizing the Little Ice Age with regard to family history research.

The Little Ice Age is the name given to the cold period that lasted from about 1300 to 1850. It followed the benign, 400-year long Medieval Warm Period and predated the Modern Warm Period which we are presently experiencing.

The Hunters in the Snow – painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, ca 1565

The Medieval Warm Period began about 900 AD, and was a time when:

·         Temperatures around the world rose.

·         Weather was generally stable, particularly in Europe.

·         Growing conditions were favourable for long periods.

·         Arable land expanded.

·         Towns were established.

·         Population grew.

In contrast, during the Little Ice Age:

·         Growing seasons were shortened. Snow stayed longer in the spring and frosts came earlier. Drought was common. Weather was unstable.

·         Arable lands were significantly reduced in extent. Those with poor soil and at higher elevations became unsatisfactory for cultivation or suitable only for pasture.

·         Much of the land cultivated during the Medieval Warm Period was abandoned during the period of the Little Ice Age and has never seen agricultural activity since.

·         There was a substantial increase in landless people, unemployment and poverty.

These factors resulted in less food production and higher prices for what was available, which caused even more stress on the populace. With the unstable weather, cold and reduction in arable land, back-to-back harvest failures became more frequent, resulting in repeated subsistence crises, including major famines.

That became a serious problem for a rising population adding to the problem of sufficient food production. These elements would all have affected lives and livelihoods, indeed, the very survival of people.

Much of what we seek in terms of records having information about our ancestors comes from the period of the 14^th to 19^th centuries. The harsh physical conditions of the Little Ice Age would thus have had significant impact on the way people carried out their daily activities and raised their families.

Temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere, from Climate, History and the Modern World (1995) by Hubert lamb

In order to construct detailed and realistic family histories, it is valuable to know something about the conditions under which people lived and worked.

I offer many examples of how Mother Nature was involved with the lives of people in my published articles and in my presentations. The more I look, the more instances I find where natural phenomena were part of the stories of my ancestors’ lives. And the fact that so many of these factors negatively affected the environment during the Little Ice Age makes that time period of particular importance to family history studies.

Finding Cousins: About families, death, online trees and DNA

 

When people write and talk about DNA tests, they invariably mention that they are hoping to find cousins. They call online family trees and DNA tests “cousin bait” as they see that expanding their test exposure with different companies and publishing an online family pedigree as ways of connecting with others who may be related.

I think what most of these people are looking for are not necessarily cousins, but anyone, related or not, who might know more or different things about their ancestors.

All of us who are engaged in this hobby – and, other than those who make a living consulting with hobbyists – are generally doing this research for fun and to fill time. Yes, some people want or need to know more about ancestors with regard to possible health concerns – what diseases or other health matters might they be prone to because of their genes – but mostly it is just curiosity about who came before us and what might they have been like.

It was interesting to read a blog post by Gail Dever in March 2020 (Living your legacy – now) when she commented that, “As genealogists, we focus a lot on dead people. There’s no doubt we think about death more than the average person.” There is no way around it when you are researching ancestors because they are all gone. In truth, if they weren’t dead, they wouldn’t be ancestors.

For many people, it is a contest to see how far back they can find people to whom they were related. I have come across trees with tens of thousands of names in them and wondered how the originators of those trees know they are part of the same connected families. I know of several trees that have major errors which invalidate most of the connections with people predating those mistaken identities.

But who really cares whether you have a large number of people in your family tree?

I have never thought that having my family tree online was a great idea. But I am coming around to the idea that it may prove of value.

As I wrote in a blog post on 8 July 2014, “It did happen that my family tree ended up online by accident. . . After suffering a loss of files, including my latest family tree data, in a hard drive crash back in 2010, I decided I would look at online storage solutions to protect against loss of valuable genealogical information. I had heard about a system called BackUpMyTree which, when installed on my computer, automatically created a backup of all of my data on a secure site. . . MyHeritage acquired BackUpMyTree in late 2011 and my family tree suddenly appeared on the MyHeritage website.”

I left the tree on MyHeritage and have had many messages from them over the years about possible matches. I use the search tools only occasionally. Right now (9 August 2021) there are 14,535 Record Matches and 39,606 Smart Matches. I never find the time, though, to look at many of them. I do use the site to enhance, colourize and animate photos. These tools have proved to be very useful.

In 2017 my wife and I had our atDNA tested with 23andme. It was our first foray into this way of finding cousins. I wrote a post here about that on 27 June 2017, DNA Matches, and again on 26 November 2019, DNA:Reviewing our tests. Over the years I have had contact with many cousins and learned much more about several family lines. Still some brick walls remain, though.

I did upload my DNA test results to MyHeritage from 23andme, along with those of my wife and children and am working through the 12,703 matches for these to try to break down some brick walls.

I also have Y-DNA and atDNA tests on FamilyTreeDNA along with similar tests for a brother-in-law and a first cousin (both now deceased). I am hoping, between all of us, to be able to extend what I know about direct lines ancestral of me and my wife. That means, of course, finding more cousins. I have 4,683 matches of atDNA at FamilyTreeDNA, but only three using 67 markers of Y-DNA.

For my cousin, there are 5,009 matches of atDNA and one using 67 markers of Y-DNA at FamilyTreeDNA. I wrote about the latter match in a blog post on 14 June 2021, Miller Y-DNA: A minor break-through. I asked that one individual who shared Y-DNA to also test for atDNA so we could see what matches the three of us have in common. The atDNA test for my wife’s brother has 6,138 matches and 12 people who match at the 67-marker level of Y-DNA.

Recently I decided to broaden my DNA testing with an autosomal test with Ancestry. We still have those brick walls to break down, so I thought putting a line in a different pool might result in some more fish (cousins). With that test, I also thought it worthwhile to put up a tree as well. I am keeping it private for now.

It’s a major slog through mountains of data to try to find cousins that will help with breaking down some of our brick walls using DNA. It seems many of the people who match do not know much about their ancestors, so finding common ancestors is that much more difficult. Over time there have been many more ways to use DNA on all of the test company sites, from health reports to maps showing where your ancestors originated to Neanderthal connections. These make the subject even more interesting.

All-in-all it is still worthwhile to keep my subscriptions live, but I am not updating my online trees. That’s just more work and there is enough information on them to attract cousins.