About this blog

This blog is called descent from adam: a tale of downward social mobility because I once told my wife that I had just found out via Google that I could trace my ancestry back to Adam and Eve via Royalty. She pointed out that at least my slide down the social mobility snake helps someone else step onto a ladder.

Having subsequently found other origins I now think the possible descent from Chaos of Greek mythology seems to make more sense although maybe that’s just me noticing a genetic characteristic (see more on genetic geneaology here).

When I set it up in back in 2008, the idea was simply to use it to keep track of what I’d was finding out about my family history (mostly from free resources). None of this was meant to be particularly authoritive, and that’s why what I link to is more eclectic that those more scholarly or rigourous about Genealogical Proof Standard would cite. But that more journal-like note taking allows me to retrace my steps as I hopefully get greater clarity from connecting up the different jigsaw-like pieces. That’s the post-rationalised theory, and if those notes help provide starting places and jump off points for others to follow-up on then happy days.

What I have also been trying to is help contextualise history for my kids by highlighting ancestors who might have played a role in what they were studying at school (e.g. Victorian Britain: see example here). Not sure I have been particularly successful other than on a trips to Athens and the Louvre after that become obsessed with Greek Goods thanks to the Percy Jackson books.

But as my family history obsession grew, it became a lighthouse, signpost and sometimes a gathering place for others fascinated by their ancestry. Their contributions further fuelled my fascination, but as I found out more about family history I realised there seemed to be two sides to it:

1. Pokemon-like genealogy of who begat whom, where and when… and that gotta catch them all is what I now co-facilitate with my cousin Hamish Maclaren over at Ancestorium.com (see more about this here).
2. Social sharing of stories, photographs and content with others… and that’s what this blog is still mostly about – hence containing anecdotes, discoveries, encounters, observations, notes and reflections including where I explore the why of it all (see more on this here).

The categorising of blog posts on here is an ongoing project (as is keeping links to ancestors live as sources cited come and go, or stop being publicly available). And so the site sections in the main menu at top of all pages will hopefully start to make more sense over time. But in the meantime, here is a quick summary of them:

• Family Index, Categories and Related Resources: this page provides an overview and links for three interrelated parts of this blog:
  • Family Index: an index of summaries for the different families I’ve been researching that also includes references to the resources used as part of the research (there’s only 2 right now, but I plan to add more)
  • Categories: an explanation of how the posts have been categorised that’s still work in progress.
  • Related Resources: summaries and links to the key resources used as part of my research other than Google that’s also still work in progress.
• Biographies | Eulogies | Obituaries: the section if a category of relevant blog posts. The idea behind it is to present information about ancestors so they are remembered for being more than just another branch in a family tree. Some more notable ones have official biographies and even wiki entries, while others had obitiuaries published. But even eulogies, tributes, family stories and anecdotes help tell us something more relateable about our ancestors as people and their lives.
• Family History Portfolios: page explaining the different ‘portfolios’ on this site of pages and post that attempt to different presentations of content about family history beyond the who begat who, including:
  • Scrapbook of an Edwardian Lady: my 2x Gt aunt Agnes Selina Fox kept a scrapbook. I’ve started to add parts of this to this blog as I try to piece together the people and places she’s included. Not only is it a fascinating record of her life, and the changing times from the turn of the century to just after WW1, but also a different way or presenting information about our ancestors.
  • A toffee pig for Christmas: this is a creative work of non-fiction about my mother’s childhood in Lancashire that formed part of her mother’s PhD. Again, it is different presentation of family history.
  • 31 Generations of The Birtwistle Family: this is the Preface and Contents section from Thirty-One Generations Of The Birtwistle Family, A Family History (Including, But Not Limited To,  The Birtwistle, Bertwistle, Birtwhistle, Birtwell Spellings) book compiled by L. Alan Birtwhistle that I am re-publishing on this site as series of blog posts. It includes links to the chapters I’ve added to date.
• Family news: this section is a category of blog posts that are more newsletter-like covering hatches, matches, despatches and other relevant news of close kith and kin, e.g. media appearances, awards, medals, etc.
• Poetry Corner: my mother is a published poet, as was my aunt, and it turns out that I have other relations that write poetry. A number of my ancestors were also poets, and the peotry of my Scotts ancestors appears to have been both part of their cultural tradition but also linked to an oral tradition of family history.
• Ancestorium.com: Family Search: explanation of the family tree collaboration that I co-faciliate with my cousin Hamish Maclaren over at Ancestorium.com that now has over 160,000 ancestor records. This page also contains a user guide on how best to use the fully searchable database.
• Genetic Genealogy Guide: this page contains an introduction to genetic genealogy put together by cousin Hamish based on his extensive experience of using most of the different available tests and platforms.

My posting waxes and wanes, but hope you find what I have compiled here useful and interesting. Feel free to get in touch in the comments below if you have any questions or queries: