To Make Them Come Alive...

Framework Knitter's Loom, 1750

Recently I hired a British genealogist to help document my research on my maternal ancestors who all, men and women, were textile workers in Nottingham. She found that one of my great-great-great grandfathers was a framework knitter. That was interesting--until I realized I really didn't know what that entailed. Thanks to the internet, I found entire sites devoted to the history of framework knitters' lives. Because of those sites, I can now picture my ancestor toiling away long hours at a small loom in his home, involving all his family in the production of stockings, and earning very little for his labors. I see a family living one step above poverty with little hope of doing more than hanging on. I think I understand why my ancestor's daughter---my great-great grandmother--took up with the young "master lacemaker" (whose prospects must have looked rich in comparison), going to the altar in whatever is the English equivalent of a "shotgun wedding".

I was brought up to be interested in genealogy, although we never called it that. Mother enjoyed sharing stories about her family, and there were photos and artifacts and even a genealogy research report to make the people come alive. My paternal grandmother also told stories, accompanied by photos, artifacts, and a roughly penciled pedigree chart. And the people came alive.

All this talk about the past, told with love and enthusiasm, instilled in me a love for family and history. I studied History as an undergraduate, and learned to appreciate how understanding the contexts of time and place are essential to understanding those who came before us. Embracing genealogy was a rather natural result of hearing the stories, but learning the history enables me to visualize something of the lives of "my people", to put flesh on ancestors' bones. I learn not just for myself but for Them---those people who I can picture even though there are no pictures, people like my framework knitting great-great-great grandfather. I am who I am because of Them, and I owe them. I pay my respects to them by learning the history to put them in their time and place, and to make them come alive.