If You Could Spend an Afternoon With an Ancestor....

I'm imagining time with an ancestor again.  In my last conversation with an ancestor I didn't mention in my post that I would ask about her parents and family.  I wouldn't want my ancestor to think I wasn't interested in him or her personally or that I was only interested in talking with him or her for the purpose of obtaining genealogical information.  I would certainly have included questions about family -- parents, siblings, ancestors -- in our visit, but only after my ancestor and I had developed a rapport and become comfortable with each other.

Today I'm imagining time with one of my British-born ancestors, one who is just three generations away from me, my great-grandfather, William Doyle.  He came to America as an 8-year-old boy with two younger siblings and his mother.  His father had immigrated to America the previous year.  All of his grandchildren called him Pap.

I would choose a spring or autumn afternoon for this visit.

I would like to know...

• if he worked in the mines even as an 8-year-old.  Family legend says he did.  If so, I would like to know what he did and how he felt about it.
• if he was able to attend school while he lived in England and what it was like, if he did.
• that he remembers about preparing to come to America, the trip across the ocean, landing in America, and travelling from New York to Pennsylvania.
• what happened that he decided to keep a mustache his whole life.  (Again, family legend says there was an accident that caused scarring.)  What was the accident and how did it happen?
• how he met his wife, Tressa Froman.  Maybe he would tell me some courtship stories.  Maybe he could tell me where his father-in-law is buried!
• if he remembers his grandparents on either side of his family, if he lived near them, and whether he saw them often.  I hope he would share specific memories.

With an afternoon to spend with him, I would ask him to show me around the farm in Stoneboro.  I would ask what life was like for him as a boy on the farm and what school was like.  I would want to know about his childhood friends.  I hope he would talk about growing and selling strawberries, determining where to dig a coal mine, and share any special memories of his parents and/or his children.

I'm sure his answers to my questions would prompt more questions and the afternoon would pass all too quickly.  I fully expect to be able to talk to Pap when I pass through the veil from life to death.

I welcome your thoughts about questions you'd ask your own ancestor.  If some of you would like to write a post and leave a link in a comment I'll compile your responses in a blog post next Sunday or Monday.  (Feel free to use this image or the one in the previous post at the link above.)

Happy visiting with your ancestor.

--Nancy.

Copyright © 2009-2015 Nancy Messier. All Rights Reserved.