But have you ever thought about what the back story is to your Blacksheep ancestor? What was his or her crime? Was she a victim or the perpetrator? What was the punishment and how would you judge the punishment in today's times?
One of my husband's ancestors was arrested in Ireland for stealing potatoes. The year was 1841. A famine year. All over Ireland families were starving. Those who could afford it were leaving Ireland in droves but many of those were dying too on the so-called Coffin Ships.
This poor woman who stole potatoes had young children. No doubt the family was hungry. She didn't go to jail for her crime but she was fined. I have no doubt she could not pay. She may have ended up in jail for lack of payment, but the records do not show what happened to her.
One of my ancestors seems to have been quite a horrible man, one you would not want as your friend... or relative. He was always in trouble for fighting with his neigbours, burning down their fences, destroying their crops and generally making quite a nuisance of himself. He tried to burn down his son's house with his son in it! Eventually the courts were fed up with his behaviour and ordered his sons to keep him in line or they would banish him from the town. This was in the 1680s and 1690s in what is now New York.
We can dismiss him from our thoughts with a "what a horrible man!" or we can think about what might have been happening. He was an older man then, in his 70s and 80s. Could he have been suffering from dementia? Senility? There would not have been any resources to diagnose or care for him. Think of the hardship on his family and the stress they were under.
I started making a list of my Blacksheep ancestors and was quite surprised by how many I have. Adding those of my husband, one of my daughters-in-law and my sister-in-law brought me up to over 30 individuals who were involved in some way with criminal activity. One was a victim, attacked by an axe-wielding neighbour. The rest were perpetrators and they ranged from stealing that potato, to stealing cows, to selling liquor without a licence, to indecent exposure, to attempted murder.
Over the next several months I will be blogging about each of these individuals. I hope you will follow along and write about your own Blacksheep ancestor, either on your own blog or in a comment here on mine.
My son will be linking to any stories from his blog Blacksheep Ancestors at http://blacksheepancestors.com/
I am also taking part in a survey by the creator of A Criminal Record - a compilation of historical legal and crime resources for genealogists, historians and students.
