Genealogy lessons from history

 

                                                                              Statue of Richard III in Leicester

My fascination with the story of Richard III was stoked by Josephine Tey's well known novel, The Daughter of Time, then went into overdrive with the identification of Richard's remains after they were discovered in 2012. This discovery and how the remains were identified interested me on so many levels. The history of this king was controversial and reached back into time. But the story was also up to date as present day methods were used to extract his remains and DNA was used to identify them. 

The fact that Richard's remains had been lost seemed odd to me. Had he been so reviled that they just slung him in the ground and covered him up? But the story was more convoluted than that. Think Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries. History provided the explanation for the loss of Richard III's burial place and it is often history, the things that happened around and after the time frame of the ancestors we are researching, which can explain why some of those records we are desperately looking for can be found and others cannot.

Another lesson to be taken from Richard III's story is how it has been told over time. The story morphed and changed depending on the historian, their interpretation of whichever records they chose to focus on and the aspect of the story they wanted to tell. It wasn't only historian who entered their interpretation into history, politics often underwrote which versions of the story were handed down. But we do that with most histories, as the story we feel we must tell becomes the focus and contains the points we want to get across. When these stories are handed down through changing times there can be additions and parts of the tale that no longer meet our current mores can be expunged. 

I'm currently reading The Last Days of Richard III and the fate of his DNA which prompted my thoughts about history. I haven't yet read the DNA part of the book but hopefully it will spur on the exploration of my own genetic heritage. In the meantime, it will pay to remember the following points when researching my ancestors.

• Research the wider history of events contemporary and subsequent to target time period and records
• Lore handed down should be treated with caution 

Sources:

Ashdown-Hill, John. The Last Days of Richard III and the fate of his DNA. The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2013.