Should I ‘publish’ and be damned?

OK.

1. I’ve completed family trees for my own two ‘children’ and my children-in-laws. These are quite extensive and are online so they can see the whole that I’ve uncovered in very complex family trees.
2. I’m creating booklets where I follow three of the family lines eg if my DiL’s maiden name was Smith then I’d trace back the Smiths as far as I could and choose two more interesting lines.
Each individual in the family tree I trace will have a short biography, certificates, census returns photos where possible, perhaps medals from wars and so on, clips from local papers, wills, etc These will be set in the times and place they lived - perhaps the Potato Famine in Ireland or coal mining in Scotland, do they can get a flavour of the ancestor and the times they lived in, the number of children and possible losses, successes, etc.

Each ancestor chosen will be allocated two facing A4 pages so I’ll have to leave much out.

Mr Bad Guy will feature as one of the chosen ancestors. He will get exactly the same treatment. Basic facts, a photograph, a copy of a census return where he describes his occupation as a water catcher and medicine man, plus extracts from the Yorkshire Post about his notoriety and a write up from myself about the life and times he existed in.

Each of the 4 booklet I’m creating will feature 20 individuals (80 in total) So in my DiL’s booklet he will only be 5% of her total. The other 19 will be other interesting and worthy individuals (one who won honours in WW1 and another who taught a very famous snooker player) though a couple of the stories are sad including one who died in the Workhouse. .

I’ve read the posts in reply to my query and the general consensus is that most people would find it interesting, particularly as it is over 200 years ago, if there was a rogue in the family tree. And I think the rest of the information around other ancestors balances it out fairly.

Anya what have you decided to do, we are all agog.??

The children of shotgun weddings were not called anything, why would they be, the parents were married, even if a bit late in the day.
Illegitimate children ( bastards) were children who were born to a woman who wasn’t married to the Father at all.

I thought the children of a shotgun wedding were called something much ruder than illegitimate! The word began with b and was still being used in the 1960s! Now that there are more children being born 'out of wedlock' than in it, we have an amazing turnabout on our hands which will make the job of family historian much harder!

Obviously my ancestors didn't own any shotguns because there were one or two (or more) 'illegitimate' children as they were known in the old days.

Just a thought, there are additional things like shotgun marriages in my FH and a bigamist in my husband's family. I think all these sorts of things were much more common in the past than any of us think. It's a shame that prurience stops us enjoying our past.

I found a number of surprising things in my FH including a suicide and a character 150 years back who was convicted of robbery and sentenced to transportation to Australia along with his crime accomplice daughter. An entire branch of the family changed their name because of him.

I thought this was interesting but have been slightly surprised to discover that some in the family have been horrified and one distant cousin has ignored all my subsequent attempts at contact, I assume because of what I had included in our FH report.

So I'd put the name in now but limit any information to those who ask or perhaps publish a 'clean' version but offer a 'warts and all' version to those who might be interested!

Personally I'd be fascinated. I'd be impressed that you had gone to so much trouble for me. My parents/grandparents who I knew were all ok so anything before that would be amusing. I occasionally watch the tv programme and there are celebrities with dark ancestors.

Gillybob. I managed to trace my family tree back to the mid 1800's then gave up. Found it hard work....my latest forage. I sent for my DNA through Ancestry.uk and the info I have received should keep me interested and definitely busy for the foreseeable future.

Amazing how many cousins I have/had....so another new hobby when I get the inspiration.

Oh, I see I missed the post about your dil and sil saying they would love to have you do their family trees, anya. In that case, I'm sure they will love these gifts. Very wise of you to check with them, imo.

I would err on the side of caution where dil's bad ancestor is concerned though. Maybe just put down the basic information and then an asterisk, etc, as others have suggested.

Or since you're close to her, perhaps you could speak to her privately, tell her there's some unsavory information about one long-ago ancestor and ask her if she would be ok with your putting this down? I don't recall if she and ds have young children, but if they do, she might be worried about their seeing it. She might also be concerned about other people looking through it and seeing that.

But yes, you asked how we would feel about such a gift. I'd love it! But I would rather receive it privately, so I could pour over it without others looking over my shoulder. And even more so if there were something negative in it!

In fact, I would be worried that anybody who saw that would "forget" everything else in the book and only remember that. So I would prefer if the gift-giver left out the ugly information and just let me know about it privately, so I could decide, myself, if and when to tell my kids or anyone else.

annsixty, I have often thought of that also. My family gave the first child the same name as father and grandfather so it was easy to link the correct ones up. I thought Williams would be difficult but it actually wasn't. My Mum's surname should have been easy France but because of misspelling in census returns it wasn't.

I have found family members, cousins, who I have not seen since childhood. I was e mailed asking if I was related as the same name was on my tree as my cousins grand mother she was my great aunt.

I was reluctant to tell them the tale I knew as I wasn't sure if they were aware but I took the bull by the horns and they were delighted.

Grandmother had a child out of Wedlock in 1900 at 29 to the son of a family of jewellers she worked for. She must have been supported by them as I don't think she would have been able to keep the baby otherwise. The family have a very Irish surname but the Jewellers were Jewish. They were all very delighted when they found out and it explained a lovely emerald ring which had been handed down to my second cousins daughter.

Although these events can have happened many years ago it's amazing the effect of hearing about them can be. I'm often surprised by how emotional some of the people on 'who do you think you are' can be. Shock? Empathy for ones who have suffered? I remember how impressed I was by Bruce Forsyth and how shocked and upset by one of his ancestors caddish behaviour.
It's possible your findings might be laughed off by your DiL on the day but she could be left wondering and ruminating. Just my thoughts though.

I often think how difficult research will be in the future.
Couples living together, sometimes fathers not on birth certificates, babies not taking fathers surname and many children not being baptized so no records to fall back on.

I wonder ...why don’t some posters read what’s already written?

What an ambitious project, Anya! Kudos!

But did dil and sil know you were researching their family trees? Are they okay with the idea? Imo, it's lovely, but as another poster said, not everyone thinks so.

It's great that dil's parents are so taken with the idea, but that doesn't mean that dil will be. I say the same regarding the "bad apple" ancestor. Please don't assume that her attitudes mirror her parents.

I would ask dil and sil if they're even interested in such a gift. If they are, great! If not, then I'd find something else to give them for Christmas. Maybe when they're older, the gc will want the information.

That was my next question, how long ago are we talking, as it's 200 years he is definitely interesting and should be taken as I said before as I bet 200 years ago we all had a few skeletons in the cupboard, well done Anya for all the effort involved

I'd think it was interesting ... I hope. I have a sheep-stealer in my ancestry, plus a couple of babies born very soon after a hastily arranged wedding and that's all.

I love genealogy, I don't see how this could seriously upset today's ancestors, you discovered a crime which was committed by someone who lived many years ago. It isn't an hereditary condition that can be passed on. It's a fascinating insight into the past, a skeleton in the cupboard, but surely not something that could seriously affect the present generations peace of mind.

That was totally uncalled for Seerken how rude.

We were at a family party last night (my GD’s 8th birthday) and I eased the conversation round to family trees as everyone there knows I’m ‘doing’ mine, so it came about quite naturally. The reaction was that both my SiL and DiL said they’d be keen for me to trace back their family trees. This seems to be a natural reaction from people who do want to know where they ‘came from’ as seen by the reaction of several GNetters on this thread too.

For those who don’t know, my DiL and I are very close. We have, as a family, had to pull together through a terrible family tragedy.

My OP asked how YOU GNetters would react to finding this out about one of your ancestors, so I could use this to gauge the general consensus. It’s also quite important that this anscestor lived 200 years ago so is sufficiently removed time wise.

It sounds like DIL parents have helped and subsequently given their blessing for this information to be included so go for it! What a wonderful gift!
A few members of my family have researched our family, sadly no rogues so far (apart from me!!)

I think it would be a brilliant present and the only bit which should probably be left out is the suggestion that the ancestor was a rapist. I would love to research mine but it would be almost impossible as I was adopted, as was my adoptive mother. I do know a little about the history of my birth family and my children keep asking me to write it down, including both known facts and family legend. I keep promising to do it but have never found the time.

You must feel on some level this book isn't acceptable or you wouldn't be asking for our views. Don't do it.

My brother found a really good site called Victorian Crime and Punishment. My husband's family originate from a very small town and there are many many members in his family, (not that he knows many of them due to a family fall out years ago.

We looked up the area of the nearest prison and then started with the surname. The records show the town of birth. We have not had chance yet to look into the names. Looking at some of the punishments has been an eye opener, 12 months hard labour for a 19 year old girl for lewdness. 10 years transportation for stealing fowl and potatoes for a 17 year old. Sorry if it is a bit off topic but for anyone looking a long way back this may of some interest.

Treason is a bit different to rape, so is being ‘ a bit of a rogue’

Maybe everyone else is as shocked as I am about the post from SERKEEN.

I was thrilled to find that a cousin of my Father was hung by Pierrpoint for treason. Sadly not mentioned in the film.