Family Trees can Bear a lot of Nuts

My husband and I were in a shopping center some time ago, "pottering about", as he says, and we wandered into a quaint little shop. Among the merchandise on display, one of us spotted a small ceramic plaque depicting a squirrel eating a nut, with the caption, "Family trees can bear a lot of nuts". We had a great chuckle over it - indeed, the salesclerk must have wondered what we were chortling about! - and I was pleasantly surprised when my husband later gave it to me as a present.

While this statement is no doubt intended to be tongue-in-cheek and humorous, like many such pithy statements, it contains more than a grain of truth. For instance, many people who have worked on their family trees have found someone among their forebears, somewhere along the way, who got into trouble with the law - the "black sheep" of the family. In the early to mid 1800s, England was shipping "unwanted" persons - individuals who were convicted of more than one crime - to Australia. (Prior to the US War of Independence (1775-1783), they had sent them to at least nine American colonies. Thereafter, they had to find a new location in the colonies, and settled on Botany Bay, Australia). I have discovered one ancestor who, in the 1830s, was convicted of breaking and entering. He was sentenced to death (which by today's standards seems rather severe for this sort of crime), but that was later commuted to transportation to Australia for seven years of hard labour. After serving a large part of his sentence, he was granted a pardon.

I also discovered that one of the infamous Culworth gang, a group of approximately 15 "highwaymen" who terrorized Northamptonshire and the surrounding counties for nearly 20 years in the late 1700s, and who were looked up to as heroes by some of the local inhabitants, shared my (rather uncommon) maiden name. However, I have yet to find a link between his family line and mine. A few of the other forebears and their siblings whom I have researched, although not in trouble with the law, were quite colorful characters.

Others may find that they are related to "blue bloods" (as did I, through another branch of my family tree), or to someone famous. However, this is not always "something to brag about", as some of those famous individuals were notorious for their idiosyncratic behaviour. Still other researchers would not have to look beyond one or two generations to find some who would qualify for the moniker!

Family trees certainly do bear a lot of "nuts", any way that term is defined. It is almost a "sure thing", for those who have not looked into their family history, that they would discover a few "nuts" of their very own in their background, without having to dig too deeply!

Sue Fenn, Canada
www.hubpages.com/hub/Family-Trees-can-Bear-a-lot-of-Nuts