So long, Napoleon

 

 

So. I had pretty much given up on my blog.  Not on writing.  Or family tree stuff.  I just felt I had nothing sufficiently interesting to say and no time to think.  But it is a New Year.  With new goals and intentions.

 

And one of mine is to post once a week.  To give me a break from my attempts at longer pieces. I also have a renewed interest in my family tree (I will explain shortly) and I am hoping to stick to regular times for all of my writing so this blog commitment will help give structure.  I hope.

 

Anyway, the renewed genealogy interest has come in the form of a most annoying piece of news.

 

One of my most prized family discoveries had been my four times great grandfather, Solomon Major.  He joined the 66th Regiment of Foot in 1805 and in 1817, in Bengal, he produced (as ever, no sign of a mother on the paperwork, indicating illegitimacy) a son named Robert Clement Major.    Solomon left India in 1817 and his regiment were sent to St Helena to guard Napoleon.  A fact which, as an obsessive history reader, I loved.  (I ignored his abandonment of Robert and subsequent English marriage!)

 

But...  The Ancestry website very 'helpfully' leaves you links to items which may be of interest.  When I looked last week, for the first time in ages, there was a link to someone who had included the Majors on their tree.  But theirs looked very different to mine.

 

Now, I have blogged before about the wariness with which one should approach information from other people's trees (my own mother was dead and buried in America according to one Ancestry tree!).  However, I was really interested in this Major tree because that family is a real brickwall for me.  My great grandfather Frederick Clement Major did not leave India after Partition and we do not even have a date of death for him.  Other than his parents' names, his grandfather Robert and Solomon, I have very little.

 

But this new tree's Robert Clement Major had many children, one of whom was apparently Herbert Wason Major, Frederick Clement's father (come on, keep up!).  After fruitless digging, I posted a query about these extra siblings on Rootschat.com (an excellent source of help).  And after a number of replies, the whole top of my Major tree - including the treasured discovery of Solomon and Napoleon - is now thrust into doubt. 

 

So to cut a long and boring story short, I think Solomon as a wonderful family tale may be gone.  It looks increasingly like my Robert Clement Major should actually be a Robert Clement Major from the British Army.  He was born and raised in Barbados (!), married Mary (also from Barbados) and then lived all over the world before settling in England.  His children were born at various postings and his Herbert Wason was born in Jersey in 1853.  There is an army record for Herbert showing his resignation from his lieutenancy in 1876.  This would probably fit with his eventual Police profession in India.  Ex-military men often found employment in the Empire's police forces apparently.  It is the Wason bit which bothers me.  I have wondered if it was mis-transcribed before but I don't think so.  It is clearly written on a number of original sources and is just so unusual.  There is also record of connection between Wasons and Majors in Barbados.

 

The 1881 census is quite definite that Robert Clement was born in Barbados but there was definitely a Robert Clement born in Bengal in 1817.  At the moment, I can't prove either of these connections one way or the other.  But I reckon Herbert Wason might be the key.  His son, my great grandfather Frederick Clement, was very definitely Anglo Indian. If the newly discovered Herbert married an Anglo Indian then that accounts for Frederick's 'caste' , for want of a better word.  And there goes the Napoleonic dream. Bother.  Or other words.

Blessed are the Bookbinders

I wanted to "take a post" to comment on how utterly entertaining Who Do You Think You Are? was this week.  Brian Blessed was a human demonstration of the usually private emotions attached to finding out about your ancestors.  His reactions were almost toddler like in their "up" then "down" qualities!  Bookbinders!  Stationers! Paupers!

I didn't blog about the episode as soon as it was shown because well, I felt that many far better qualified to comment people would be doing so.  However, having now discussed the show with friends and relations, I think it has been very interesting to see how "the subject" (i.e. celebrity) can really make the show worth watching.

We all will have heard about celebrities feeling the pressure to cry at the discoveries that are put before them.  A ten year anniversary show for Who Do You Think You Are?, shown a couple of weeks ago, again talked about this.  And indeed, hats off to any subject matter that can bring emotion out of Jeremies Paxman or Clarkson.  And for sheer boring reactions, I suggest watching some of the US episodes - a series of "oh really" and "oh wow".  No comments about Botoxed faces please....

The fascinating thing about Brian Blessed, though, was his sheer joy - not just the sadness.  And he was so overwhelmingly grateful to everyone that he met on his journey (even if he did comment on one of the vicar's weights!).

Family history can be a joyful experience!  It is not all about early deaths, destruction and other assorted disasters!  Yay!  Brian Blessed even made the best, Pollyanna-style, of his Great Great Grandfather having been in the workhouse - he celebrated the boy Blessed's ingenuity in escaping - albeit briefly - by focussing on what a character the lad must have been.  And don't get me started on his pride in the "randy" man with thirteen children - no thought for how the poor guy clothed and fed them all!

Maybe this is the way forward for genealogists.  Reports should show five positive facts before reporting the doom and gloom!  I have sometimes thought that Who do You Think You Are? has tended to make us think that we should be looking for sad family history from which we can take serious lessons.  "look how far we have come", "wasn't that [insert disaster] awful for them?" etc etc.

Maybe we should focus on the positives as little more.  I have a four times great grandfather, Solomon Major, who was a British soldier in India.  When I found him, it became apparent that he had had a child with an Indian woman and had then left India with his regiment.  Who knows whether he ever had any contact again with his Anglo Indian son.  So far, so glass half empty.

Clearly there was not joy for the family left behind in India - in fact, most probably not for Solomon in leaving them.  Yet if he had not gone to India, I would not be here.  His Anglo Indian descendents survived and thrived. 

A further check into what happened to Solomon, though, revealed that when he left India, his regiment were sent to St Helena - to guard Napoleon in his island jailhouse!  This in turn led to the discovery that Solomon was granted Chelsea Pensioner rights because of his service on St Helena.  He returned to Bristol and had quite a large family, from a first cursory glance at the records.  A story worthy of positive thoughts, in my view at least.

Glass half full is a good life motto.  Or if you are Brian Blesssed, glass brimming over!