Shauna has chosen Sporting Records for her topic in Week 35, and tells us that "sporting records can tell us how our ancestors were involved in their local communities and what they did in their spare time. Or was it all work and no play?"
I must admit this is not an area I have really spent time focusing on, although while searching the British Newspaper Archives (Britain's version of Trove, although theirs you have to pay for!) I have discovered some of my father's ancestors were avid hunters. My great grandfather Walter Green even kept a pack of hunting hounds, as shown in the first article below.
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| Chelmsford Chronicle - Friday 26
February 1892 |
Walter also enjoyed pigeon shooting, and clearly spent a significant portion of his leisure time engaged in these pursuits. As this is the wealthier branch of the family (where did the money go??) he clearly had the time and means to enjoy these activities.
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| Essex Standard - Saturday 21 June
1884 |
As Shauna points out, this kind of information really helps flesh out how our ancestors lived their lives, taking us beyond the basic names and dates and adding color, depth and detail to our knowledge of them.
To read Shauna's post on Sporting Ancestors,
click here.
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