Back to the Roots

Sometimes when I visit my cousin, I take advantage of her location and go to a nearby record office to do some research into the history of my uncle's family who lived in that area.  After one such trip this week I began to write up what I'd discovered, and follow up with things I can look up on line.  I tried to find my uncle and his family on the 1939 Register (a survey made just after the start of World War II that was used in the issue of ration cards and, after the war, in the administration of the Health Service).

One feature of the on line presentation of this record is the provision of a multi-age map showing the location of each address.  Having found my uncle's address, Merrils Farm, on the outskirts of Derby, I scrolled down to look at the map.  Having also looked at the modern version of the map I realised that, although the farm is no longer there, its location is very close to the road I would have driven on quite often a few years ago when making frequent deliveries to Rolls Royce.

But what amazed me most was the amount of time I spent mesmerised, just looking at that map on my computer screen.  My uncle wasn't my direct ancestor and, although I remember his occasional visits with affection, he died when I was only 13.  Nevertheless, I was just spellbound by my discovery that I'd often passed near to somewhere that he had lived.

As the current craze - facilitated by advances in digital technology - for interest in family history witnesses, our roots are important to us.  The Old Testament tells the story of God's people, the Israelites, who had constantly broken their covenant with God and as a consequence had been exiled from their promised land and were under the control of the rulers first of Assyria, then of Babylon, and later of Persia.  After many years, there began a gradual return from exile under Zerubbabel, a prominent Israelite and descendant of King David.  The story is told in the early chapters of Ezra.  The return took quite a while to get going; eighty years later Ezra himself led another tranche.

After another thirteen years, word came to Nehemiah, who was the cup-bearer to the Persian king, of the state of Jerusalem, still not rebuilt despite the years that Israelites had been back there.  Nehemiah was very affected by this news and sought the permission of the King to lead a party to Jerusalem (Nehemiah ch. 1-2).  The remainder of his book tells how he followed up God's inspiration to lead the returning Israelites to rebuild their city and to support the priest Ezra in the rekindling of their covenant with God.

I was intrigued by the link with my long-dead uncle; Nehemiah was moved by the derelict state of a city he'd never seen.  What is it that is so magnetic about our roots?  And what can it teach us?  The fundamental lesson is this.  God created us for one purpose only: to have a relationship with Him.  We are hard-wired for that purpose, as the psalms tell us.  "Earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you.  My whole being longs for you." (Ps. 63:1); "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God." (Ps. 42:1).  The next best thing to a relationship with God is the tie with members of our family, not just our children, but also our forbears and ancestors ... it's all part of the wonderful mystery of creation and procreation.

If, like me, you're obsessed by and drawn to your own family history, why not take that fascination one step further and develop an equal interest in and response to the One who has loved you constantly since you were in your mother's womb?

A Word about Harsh Words

A few weeks ago - possibly some months now, considering how time flies these days - I moved my furniture around and uncovered some bookshelves that had previously been masked by the dining table.  As my eye skimmed the titles one volume stood out and has since been read, a bit at a time.  'Medieval Gentlewoman' by Fiona Swabey is based on the life of a Suffolk heiress, Alice de Bryene (c.1360-1435), and I'd like to share with you a short passage from it:

“The gossip was an important figure in the later Middle Ages, from the word godsib (sibling) or godparent, denoting the spiritual affinity of the baptised and their sponsors.  More significantly a gossip was a woman who attended a close friend when she was in labour and often assisted at the birth.  Such women were part of the informal domestic webs of information and power, passing on their wisdom and experience with little respect for hierarchy, though at the same time they adhered to traditional and conservative concepts and their opinions must often have been prejudiced.  Many of their ‘old wives’ tales’ consisted of practical advice on sex, rearing animals, horticulture, cures and the interpretation of dreams and omens.  Predictably, ‘women’s tongues’ were usually conceived as being divisive, the ready butt of medieval misogyny, though it was not until the mid-sixteenth century that the gossip became a pejorative figure.”

Considering this development in the meaning and use of the word, I wasn’t surprised to find that the concordance to my on-line Bible offers no mention of 'gossip' in the King James translation.  A modern version, however, lists eight occurrences.  Four of these are from Proverbs, notably ​​​​​​ "The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down into the person’s innermost being." (Prov. 18:8), and there is only one from the New Testament, where St Paul gives voice to his misgivings about the infant church in Corinth maintaining their standards of behaviour in his absence (2 Cor. 12:20).  The King James version uses 'whisperings' for 'gossip' here, and for its purveyor in Proverbs, 'talebearer'.

Both of these help us to distinguish between the virtuous 'godsib' of centuries past and the less worthy practices to which the word was later applied.  Those of us who have reached mature years may remember being told as children that 'all whispers tell lies,' or having the spreading of malicious falsehoods about our playmates being described as 'telling tales'.  We don’t have to dig very deeply to find a Biblical source for many of the wise sayings of the older generation.

Maybe the wisdom that comes to us from these later developments of what was in medieval times a totally different expression is particularly relevant as we face the possibility of Brexit becoming a reality.  Firstly, I think it's important that we view all changes in society - whether in language, medicine, technology or financial and economic affairs - in a balanced way.  We have to accept that change has happened, noting with approval what benefits any changes has brought, while not forgetting the good aspects of what has been replaced and seeking to maintain them or reinstate them within the changed society when this might be possible.  

Secondly, when we turn ourselves to condemn tittle-tattle - and its near neighbour falsehood - from the standpoint of what we believe to be honest virtue and accuracy, it's essential that we remember standards of courtesy and civility.  In his autobiography, Mahatma Gandhi wrote, "'Hate the sin and not the sinner' is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practised, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world."  Many people believe that his opening phrase is from the Bible, but this is not the case.  What Jesus did teach, which covers the same general problem, is to be found in Matthew's gospel.  "Don't judge, so that you won't be judged.  For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use you will receive." (Matt. 7:1-2).  Paul also advised against reckless condemnation of our fellows when he wrote to the Romans, "'Vengeance is mine, I will repay', says the Lord" and advised, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for by doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head." (Romans 12:19-20).