Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Abraham Vater. 1724
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A very rare case. With a Partial View of the Objects, Communicating to Mr. Abraham Vater, Prof. Med. Wittemb. R.S.S.
A woman of middle age, in the last year, after a blow from the back, through a bath and subsequent cooling, Coryza, one night she fell into a black cataract, or a feral drop: for in the morning she awoke from sleep she felt blinded by the use of her eyes, without any externally visible defects in her eyes. After the use of real medicines, various laxatives and blood-purifying agents, with similar dressings, together with a decent diet, his sight gradually returned, but he was old enough to notice that his sight was worn out, and strange phenomena occurred in him.
Generally speaking, the further back in time you go, the harder it is to discover detail. Even if we are lucky, we can only trace our ancestors back a few hundred years and then most of the detail is lost, boiled down to just names, dates of birth marriage and death, perhaps occupation and location. This is the sum of a lifetime of toil, achievement and experience.
ReplyDeleteGo back five thousand years and even nations and civilizations become indistinct with a few notable exceptions. Yet people organised in recognisable societies have been around since the last Ice Age and recognisable humans for a hundred thousand at least.
These are the genetic trails that have formed us and make us what we are, both consciously and unconsciously - all those intricate physiological and mental processes that we so much take for granted without a second thought, unless or until they are interfered with by age, illness or accident.
I am fortunate in being able to trace a family tree back to the 17th Century and to be firmly rooted in a relatively small area of North Somerset. This is an accident of birth and I had virtually nothing to do with it - it was all determined by others - yet I am still thankful for it. I am irrevocably attached to a geographical and geological area of Britain with a long and glorious history, celebrated in its natural beauty and architectural heritage. It still retains a unique cultural identity, but diluted by all the social and technological changes to which it is subject, no doubt both good and bad.
Family trees are endlessly fascinating. An unusual surname can help. But an interesting side-line is the names of the female names of the women who gave birth to the traceable men. These of course lead to quite different families and divergent lines. In my case only a few of the women do not come from the same immediate area of the men until comparatively recent times.
Ease of travel, education and affluence have transformed the 'mating market', whilst some fundamental changes in attitudes and behaviour have transformed and loosened social bonds. No longer are two individuals bound to one another for life by law and necessity as they once were. Research of family trees in the future is bound to be far more complicated.
As to mine and just the mothers' names are as follows: Blacker, Fear, Sparks, Iles, Mitchell, Marshall, Sparks (again), Millard, Goodrich, Wood, Rose, Chapman, Abraham and Purnell, are just a few of, with one exception, all good Anglo/Saxon Westcountry names. Elizabeth 'Betty' Abraham, who lived from March, 1721 to July, 1779 may possibly have been Jewish and enables me to claim a progeny right back to Abraham! veaterecosan
"Recorded" history is the operative word. As to availability of names and tracing them, much depends on status. The wealthy elite groups may have their own detailed family trees that go right back to the early English period, most notably Royal and noble lines. For the rest of us, we are dependent on Parish records of christening, marriage and burial (note not birth and death) which may be patchy and anyway run out before the 17th C. Much depends on knowing the places involved, although modern computers and the work of digitalisation, makes this a lot easier. As you say 1066 'and all that' was a huge revolution, in which the Anglo- Saxon systems and land ownership was replaced wholesale by Norman ones, with much brutality. It is an important historical turning point, beyond which documents and names become even more scarce and difficult to trace, as if the earlier periods weren't difficult enough!
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