The Scottish GENES Blog (GEnealogy News and EventS): Top news stories and features concerning ancestral research in Scotland, Ireland, the rest of the UK, and their diasporas, from genealogist and family historian Chris Paton. Feel free to quote from this blog, but please credit Scottish GENES if you do. I'm on Mastodon @scottishgenes and Threads @scottishgenesblog - to contact me please email chrismpaton @ outlook.com. Cuimhnich air na daoine o'n d'thà inig thu!
This week sees the 70th anniversary of the first raid of the Belfast Blitz, when the Luftwaffe attacked the city on Easter Tuesday, and attacked my grandparents' house in the process!
We think we get some surprises doing family trees: the odd birth out of wedlock (oh, the shame!). Imagine being German, aah, Greatuncle Otto was in the SS, err, we'll just put down "soldier".
A German friend of mine told me her uncle was in exactly that boat - he actually had to have a family tree drawn up to prove his degree of 'Aryan ancestry'. The liberal and humanitarian in me hates everything the SS ever stood for - the genie in me is fascinated and says I still wouldn't mind having a look at that tree!
We think we get some surprises doing family trees: the odd birth out of wedlock (oh, the shame!). Imagine being German, aah, Greatuncle Otto was in the SS, err, we'll just put down "soldier".
ReplyDeleteA German friend of mine told me her uncle was in exactly that boat - he actually had to have a family tree drawn up to prove his degree of 'Aryan ancestry'. The liberal and humanitarian in me hates everything the SS ever stood for - the genie in me is fascinated and says I still wouldn't mind having a look at that tree!
ReplyDeleteChris