General Chat

We've seen how many people lost ancestors (and ancestors' close relations) to drowning deaths, in my recent thread on that topic, and what truly fascinating insights into our social history stories like that provide.

Now I want good ancestors. Not exciting ones or funny ones -- good ones. People who are or were known for some significant humanitarian contribution to the world.

Just as there are no drowning deaths in my own tree, to my knowledge, I have no leading humanitarian figures. A bad poet or two, a novelist, an actress -- we'll have another thread about the arts later I guess.

Well, maybe not quite true. My second cousin four times removed was Viscount John Sankey, who was Lord Chancellor in 1929 and sat on the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords. He first stated the "living tree" doctrine of constitutional interpretation, which has contributed greatly to the expansive equality rights that we enjoy in Canada. Gay men and lesbians who have been able to marry their partners in Canada for several years now, along with members of other minorities, and women, would surely say that his was a humanitarian effort.

My maternal grandfather was a marvelous man, kind and gentle with everyone, and at the same time a staunch trade unionist who fought for the 40-hour week. His legacy is felt in his family and among others who knew him (including that lefty lesbian clergywoman, who knew him as a child and still remembers him fondly).

But I'm looking for big deeds.

Woman suffragists?
Anti-slavery activists?
Tireless campaigners against child or animal cruelty?
Politicians who stood up for the rights of colonized peoples?
Union organizers?
Nurses and doctors who worked for the public good?

Come. Boast. ;)

None of mine did anything significantly worthwhile but I bet one of mine had the longest tapeworm. All seven yards of it!

You start your own thread. XP

I'll jjust wait and see whether the world ends sometime in the next few hours (the Aussies can't really expect it to end on their time) and then try boosting this up again on the weekend when the lazybones in other times zones are awake.

Somebody must have somebody! I know I've heard the odd one talk about suffragist rellies, for instance.

Well; if you insist...

My ancestor was Ben Pickard - a Yorkshireman who was down the mines at 14 like his ancestors but got into union activity. He lead the Yorkshire miners then was leader of the Miners Fed of Great Britain. One of the first working class British MPs. Good enough? ;-)

One branch of my family had 3 sons go to New Zealand via Australia and settled a large area on the south coast of the South Island. One brother - William Barnard Rhodes - was not known as a humanitarian =I However the other two Robert and George Rhodes were popular and made a huge difference in the areas they lived. George financed the tower in the Christchurch Cathedral that we sadly saw tumble to the ground during the earthquake. They settled in the Timaru and Lyttleton areas.

Funnily enough my father told me a story that came from his father. My great grandfather apparently liked a drink but gave it up and turned to religion after learning that he had missed out on an inheritance from a wealthy relative who had gone to Australia. My great grandfather's mother was a Rhodes.

Sue

Not an ancestor, but me.

I've survived the end of the world, unless it occurs later today. :0))

Allan

Okay, two good ones! I'm partial to union organizing working-class MPs, myself, but old dead rich white guys who did public works, okay.

Allan is a humanitarian himself, of course. His donations of early 19th century sketches of military buildings (well, of digital copies of them, anyhow, and the rights to use) have contributed a good bit to modern knowledge of Canadian military history!

Betcha you all didn't know that, then.

Of course, without me being doggedly on the case, it wouldn't have happened.

I wanna book!!! Has that launch take place already? I was going to go and claim my copy -- of the just published book about the barracks in Toronto that contains Allan's ancestral watercolour.

Janey, the book has been launched and copies are available at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe lol

Allan

That is indeed a humanitarian act by Allan - well done :-) And yes I did know that.

My grandfather was a very strong trade unionist - Grandma nearly left him at one stage because he couldn't get work. He eventually got work with his brother in law tanning hides to make shoe leather - a job that contributed to his ill health.

S x

My gx4 grandfather was,at his death in 1842, apparently the heaviest man in England (though not as big as Daniel Lambert).

The newspaper report also states that his wife and daughters were also 'big'.

So, on humanitarian grounds, they kept quite a few farmers and shops in Romsey afloat in the 1830's!!!

I have a rellie who was an MP for a long time, but can't find anything humanitarian about him, just a few dodgy dealings. No change there then!

She's gorgeous GF - you must be very proud :-)

Sue

Thank you sue!

Hmm - no direct line ones, but a couple of 'twigs' if they count.

The Capitalist Jabez Harker 1840 - 1912 who was a joint founder and director of the Public Benefit Boot Company supposedly to provide affordable footwear for the workers. Mind you, he did quite well out of it with an estate of £10 000 when he died!

Then there the was the 'Spook', James Harvey Gaul 1911 - 1945 who was captured behind German lines and executed as a spy.

How about Gaul's own grt grandfather, Philip Barltett, 1812-1899 a travelling Methodist Minister in the US. although from his photos he looks like a fire and brimstone type of guy, he seems to have been a 'good egg'.

Let me see. So far we've a couple of sailors, a convict, an African American, a tram conductor, a sign writer and a bootmaker.

And of course the circus clowns.

My mum was the first female member of the electrical trade union in the Northern Territory.

Slim pickings indeed.

One of my ancestors Charles Meade Ramus invented Hydroplane...

Jules..

Not direct line, but share the same ancestors as:-
Sidney Curnow Vosper 1866-1942 Artist
Cyril Vosper 1935-2004 Scientologist wrote 'The Mind Benders'
Frederick Charles Burleigh Vosper b. 1869 Cornwall, Australian Journalist/Proprietor and Polition.
Frank Vosper 1899-1937 British Actor drowned after falling from SS Paris.
Baroness Tessa Ann Vosper-Blackstone.

Carol

A rather distant ancestor was the first airman to receive a VC - sadly posthumously.

Sue

Sheesh, maggiewinchester, what some people won't do to get their name on a post. ;)


Ye gods, slim pickings indeed. A Scientologist???

Wait, I googled, he was an *ex*-scientologist. Okay then. Unlike my possible but not likely rellie, Francis Ward Monck the imprisoned spiritualist fraud, he recanted and did good deeds:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mind_Benders
"After certain libraries in Canada refused to remove the books from their shelves, they were sued by Scientology."
(Scientologists have a colourful history here. At one point they had operatives in the Attorney General's office in Toronto.)


Lateral do count, you know! (or I wouldn't have been able to stick my Viscount Sankey in there -- grx4 grandmother's brother's grandson).

And war heroes count of course -- at least WWII ones, not sure about WWI ...

It may be time for that ancestors-on-the-stage thread, since several people (starting with moi) have felt compelled to insinuate them into this one. :D

HI Janey

My 3x Maternal Grandfather James Higgins came over from Ireland. He was a shoemaker by trade and joined The Metropolitan Police in London on the 21st August 1854 age 27

He retired on the grounds of ill health after 27 years service aged 54 on the 28th April1882. He was a PC all that time and his pension was £54 per year.

His record said he was of "good conduct"

Many Police officers never made it to retirement as the job was difficult and dangerous so James did well when you think about it.

He continued to live in the same Police house with his family until he died at the age of 69 in 1895.

I am the next generation to work for the public sector, James retitred from the Police 99 years before I went into my job!

My Great Uncle Joseph Helm (James Higgins great Grandson) was born in the same year as James died in 1895.

Sadly Joseph died in the battle of the Somme on the 29th July 1916
His name is on the WW1 war Memorial in Thiepval, Somme, France.
He served in the Royal Field Artillary.

Both ancestors I think served their Country well

Still waiting to find the rich/famous ancestors with the Family fortune



Teresa :-)