Ancestory or (Family) His Story?

As a follow-up to my previous post, I contacted a mate who does actually have a PhD in Creative Non-Fiction, which is different from my mum who has a PhD in Creative Writing. Anyway, I mentioned that I have got no further with my Creative Non-Fiction PhD ambition and how I often dyslexically misspell Ancestry as Ancestory. I thought that was good and recanted that when he first went to grammar school his (“shitty”) history teacher said to the class that ‘History with one more s is His story, before asking them to write about themselves.

The irreparable harm my blog causes… alledgedly

I had this feedback recently in response to one of my posts about my ‘plantation ownering ancestors’ from some called Mike Naismith:

He is a uneducated person popping off at the the mouth with out doing proper research!!! Should not put unverified history to print unless you are 100 percent otherwise u may cause irreparable harm to…

As someone who has spent some of their career in academia, I think I could hold my own discussing both the ontological and epistemological connundrums of research methods in the arts, humanities and social sciences with Mike. And for that matter, that despite its growing professionalisation, how I am not sure that genealogy is yet recognised as an academic discipline for the most part.

If and when that does happen more univerally, I hazard a guess it would most likely be seen to be part of the arts and humanities like other areas of history, although I am sure there is study of genealogists and family historians as an anthropological or ethnographic area of enquiry.

I think that line of enquiry must be a fascinating one as participant observer, particulary given Mike and I am guessing others who seem to ‘believe’ their ‘research methods’ make them some kind of arbitators of historical truth and that one, therefore, “should not put unverified history to print unless you are 100 percent” otherwise ”irreparable harm” can be caused.

I mention all this, in part, in response to Mike accusing me of being uneducated. I actually have an MSc and studied Philosophy as part of a joint major as an undergraduate, so would be happy to discuss theories of truth with him and specifically the notion that what is actually knowable rarely being interesting. Hence, why I have said often that the ‘whom begat who’ of genealogy not being what really floats my boat.

If Mike had read a little more on this blog before “popping off at the the mouth,” he might have got a better idea of what I write about and why including the Shandean-like nature of my posts being a kind of unfolding shaggy dog story. I don’t actually consider myself to be either genealogist, or family historian for that matter. But I am interested in Creative Non Fiction and even considered that as a possible PhD. Sadly, that possible trajectory ends up competing with a possible more vocational one and, so, neither end up getting of the ground.

It just that ancestry and family history have over the years become an interesting means to those Creative Non Fiction ends and as a sort of reflective practice. That is encapulated by the quip I found as part of looking into my plantation owning ancestors (see more here):

Sometimes in family history research wandering down an unrelated byway reveals a story you could not have invented.

The blog forms part of that practice and by helping ‘nudge possibility’ when it comes to the manifestation of stories. Sometimes I go out in search of stories and by reflecting on them on here, they sometimes come to me, Put more simply, the blog acts as a light house for those who may be researching some of whom I mention, and those who get in touch almost always have something positive to contribute even it is a simple correction or amendment.

That has included a Murder Mystery as with the email back in 2009 from Jeremy Bird about my great uncle Roddy that I have been writing about recently. And the official version of his death late last year from Mike Chapman (see here, here and here), who also pointed out a likeminded approach to this kind of thing and that being about viewing the reaching of a conclusion as an iterative process and how the recording the twists and turns in that journey also being as personally important and interesting as the bottom line.

Yet more food for reflective thought and not least because of recent encounter with medium friend of my eldest who had completely different take on Roddy’s death. But the falling down of that rabbit hole is another story.

A moment of clarity

I have previously written about the purpose of this blog, or at least the why of my family history obsession. And at Proustian-length, although Laurence Sterne might be a better reference given the Shandean-like nature of the way I often end up writing about all this (see here), albeit without the literary flourish. It’s just that my recent 3 act series of posts about my Great Uncle Roddy have provided a moment of clarity about all this thanks to Mike Chapman, who not only provided a treasure trove of new information but also make the following observation that was light bulb moment about this project but also more broadly. In short, he pointed out a likeminded approach to this kind of thing and that being about viewing the reaching of a conclusion as an iterative process and how the recording the twists and turns in that journey also being as personally important and interesting as the bottom line. Food for reflective thought.

WW2 Codebreakers: Original Footage of MI6 staff at Whaddon Hall

As mentioned in my previous two posts, Mike Chapman is a volunteer for both the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Bletchley Park who has helped clear up a murder mystery about my Great Uncle Roddy. Short version, is that he died as a result of injuries sustained in car accident (as we had originally believed), rather than being possible victim of a murder (see here).

Notes on Great Uncle Roddy?

Further to my post about my Great Uncle Roddy being a spook, I was struck by the Kim Philby quote about 54 Broadway being “a warren,” which seem like a metaphor for trying to make sense of all the divisions and groups and who headed which one, reported to who and so on. That has been like disappearing down a rabbit hole into labyrinth of warrens. This post may give a sense of that:

Great uncle Roddy was a spook?

My great uncle Roderick George Maitland Kirby has always been a bit of mystery. We have no photos of him, and knew little about him other than he was most likely born about 1911 and in Ceylon like our grandfather. But thanks to George H. Graham’s amazing family history site I had found a little more about ‘Roddy’ from announcements in The Times and Roll of Honour (see more here).

The Castle Gogar Connection

Aunt Evelyn Martin in front of the painting of the Castle Gogar that hung proudly in her wall

Castle Gogar was once owned by my Ramsay ancestors (see more here), and ended up in the hands of Maitland family through the marriage of my ancestors Susan Ramsay (of Barnton) and Alexander Gibson-Maitland (see more about the ancestry here). I mention this because Amanda Keane has been in touch and shared some photos of her aunt Evelyn at Castle Cogar, among others connected to the castle and its Maitland occupants what I think is in 50s, 60s and 70s. Her aunt worked for Sir James Steel-Maitland’s dental laboratory and kept in touch with his second wife Lady Brenda after he died in 1960:

Ceylon Planters’ Rifle Corps Remembered

Suren Ratwatte has been in touch as part of his self-described ‘qioxotic’ research of those who went from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to WW1. I’m also one for tilting at windmills, so helped as much as I could (see below). As he explained, his research is partly because his grandfather and three pals were among the first Ceylonese (non-white) volunteers. But his starting point is the Cenotaph in Colombo and I have a Twitter feed where he aims to honour every name on the monument on (or close to) their date of sacrifice.

Couch to 10K fundraising

Thought I better come clean about my other obsession, my Action Man collection. This has now grown to include other figures as part of £500 we are trying to raise as a family for a couple of charities. That’s no mean feat for someone who has zero in their birthday this year and gets shinsplints every time they go running. But as explained at the link below the Wild Minds Project is a local charity supporting young people, it was huge help for our eldest. And their godmother recently had a stroke – and is making great progress at the Sussex Rehabilitation Centre with their therapy interventions and care:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kirby10k

The Astley Photographs

My mother gave me a number of family photograph albums that haven’t made it on to here because of other jobs-to-be-done, but I did promise my cousin Hamish I would try to scan/photograph them and post them on here. Have finished my first 5K Park Run today as part of family Couch to 10K fundraising (see more here), the DIY is going to be shelved this afternoon as running always gives me shin splints.

There was also a box of photographs from the Victorian era that are named on the back so they are easy to identify, including Mr and Mrs Astley above (you can read more about their connection to my mother’s Birtwistle family here).