Question of the Week: Going back in time, what burning question would you ask which ancestor?

Question

Going back in time, what burning question would you ask which ancestor?

Comments

Betty, Those stories you remember are actually quite amazing and wonderful. Times were hard back then and few survived. Yet, YOU are here. Your ancestors memories are part of you. You keep their stories alive. You are here because they survived, and that was no small feat. I congratulate your ancestors for being as tough as they were. I am happy that you are here to tell their tale. my best to you and yours.

---

Kathleen - this is the kindest comment I have ever read - you have a beautiful heart.

---

Thank you Kathleen, it is so very nice of you to say so.  They are amazing and wonderful. I want to keep their stories alive and pass them on.   What could be a better tribute to them?  Hugs!

---

I agree, her comment is very beautiful.

---

I'd ask my 10x great grandparents, Thomas and Ann Brownell,  if they were followers of Annie Hutchinson. Both men were dealers in fabrics and they were religious families. When Annie was banned from the colony they moved to Rhode Island soon after it was opened. The timing is right and they would have certainly known the Hutchisons because of their professions.  

Annie Hutchison was an interesting character with a larger attendance at her Bible Study group than pastors in approved churches had at the time.

---

I'd love to ask my Brownell ancestor who was injured at Bunker Hill what it was like to take on the British Empire. I'd have been terrified but it was a good decision.

---

I'd love to ask my GR grandparents what they thought when they were introduced in New York. They had met on the docks in Scotland but they were getting ready to ship out to America. When they were introduced they discovered they had traveled on the same over crowded immigrant ship and hadn't seen each other. I'd also ask what it was like to be on a crowded ship like that for weeks or months.

---

I'd like to ask my great-great-grandmother why she changed her mind about the name of her fifth child, who was born after her first husband's death. He was registered as Samuel in the New Zealand birth register, after which she returned to the Cape via London. He was christened Charles at the age of 17 months.

I have many guesses, most of them based on what might have happened in London, where all her in-laws were living.

The name Samuel, complete with middle name, belonged to her husband's brother-in-law, whom she may well never have met before. Did she find him unlikeable or for some other reason not good godfather material? Did her mother-in-law quietly tell her that it was not done to name a child after someone who is not a blood relation?

The name Charles, complete with another three middle names, belonged to her husband's younger brother, aged about 17 when she met him, probably also for the first time. Did she discover only then that Charles had the same birthday as her husband (who had died less than two months before the baby's birth)? Did she like the glorious ring of the four-barreled name, repeating only one of the seven names of her elder three sons? Was it because that one repeated name belonged to a baronet alleged to be the biological father of her husband's grandmother?

Or have I not come close with any of my guesses?

---

I would ask Adam Schafner born 1702 who his parents where and their parents. Also who his first wife's, Anna Margretha, parents where. I can find nothing before they came to Nova Scotia in 1751

---

My husband's ancestor, Caleb Buglass from Berwick upon Tweed, left England for St Lucia and Grenada, eventually ending up in Philadelphia in c.1773.  I would like to know if he deserted his wife and six children in Berwick, or if she died before he left, as there is no sign of her after he spent all her money!!  Just for interest, Caleb was a bookbinder who was asked by the newly established United States to bind the first Book of Common Prayer.  He attended the same church (St Peter's) as Ben Franklin who was a printer, so if I am allowed a supplementary question, I'd like to ask if Franklin knew him and, if so, whether he gave him the commission to bind the prayer book.  He married again in the US, to Mary Early and they had two daughters.

Answer 1

It would be how did Nat Norman, 3rd great grandfather of husband (Birth circa 1824 • Georgia, USA; Death AFTER 1880 • Matagorda County, Texas, USA), get from GA to Matagorda TX - and where does his ancestry go prior to there. Was he sold? Was he free? What's his story?

Answer 2

I would ask my g g grandmother Mary Walker who was the man who fathered her daughter Lily? Lily was born in 1876 in the north of England and her unknown father was definitely not white. Mary must have known his name but she never wrote it down.

Answer 3

I would have to ask my great grandmother what my grandfathers first name was n when he was born n when he died. He is the toughest one I can't get passed him on the Presley side

Answer 4

I would ask my g.g. Grandparents, How did you and your family survive through the famine years in Ireland when millions died?

Answer 5

This would be an appropriate question with a burning answer. 

My 10th Great-grandfather[[Wightman-155|Edward Wightman]] was the last person to be burnt at the stake in England for heresy. I would ask him why he believes the way he did to  take it to this extreme.