re: #255 freetoken

It is a bit of an eye-opener, when one discovers that certain wedges in the pedigree are from a different culture and social status.

I have ancestor who were relatively well off and left documentation. They (at least the males) were literate.

OTOH, there are other lines in the tree where clearly the ancestors are simple folk, illiterate, just moving around to try and make a living. What few records are left is because governments may have tracked them here or there.

It’s amazing to think about what our ancestors did. I mean it’s easy to just assume farmer. I actually got in touch with a lady in Germany who is a great granddaughter of my second grandfather who brought my relatives with my surname to the U.S. She was telling me that historically that the men in our family were potters. And it turns out the second great grandfather was an upholsterer. Never ever would have guessed that. Families statuses come and go though. One of the Irish names I have is from a prominent Norman-Irish lord but I have no doubt that his subsequent descendants were far from nobility.