In Context

At high school I never wanted to study history. So I took geography instead – I liked the idea of field trips and geography led to plenty of excursions. My understanding of history was that it was all hideously boring names, places and dates.

At Uni I took a paper about French history, which was a lot more preferable, since I already had a vested interest in the topic, and all the lectures were in French. The only other history I knew was religion focused – the Bible, the Gutenberg press, reformation, protestants, settling of America and the like.

I came across a thought at the family history fair I attended recently, by Anne Bromell, that you “should learn social history, or you won’t know why anything happened -… why people moved country.”

So even though I’ve always thought history was hideously boring, I’m trying to place my ancestors lives into the context of the times in which they lived. Hopefully if I learn more about the places that they grew up in, it will give me more insight as to why they emigrated to strange and foreign shores.

For example, one of my ancestors families – George and Lucy Mansfield, I thought that they had moved here for more money and a better life for their children. But I found out in some notes I came across recently, that the Dr told them that a sea voyage would be good for the husband, who was apparently quite sick. I seriously doubt that the boat they picked to come on would have helped his condition.

The Atrato, one of the earliest steam ships to come here, had over 700 passengers on a 350ft long vessel, and about a third of the passengers were children. Sickness broke out on the ship and several kids and 1 adult died. The ship was delayed for sometime in England while some technical difficulties were ironed out. Having to occupy several small children who were cooped up in a small space could not have been very enjoyable, especially when all the kids were getting sick. They did all make it here safely in the end, but to top off their troubles, when they arrived in their new homeland, they learned that Lucy’s mother had died while they were traveling on the ship.

At the moment I’m learning about 18th century rural England and the peninsula war (4th ggrandfather), Canada in the 19th century and the Maori wars (3rd ggrandfather), WWI (great grandfather) and WWII (grandfather). Having people that I know of, in particular world events makes me feel much more connected to the story.