On Wed, 2005-09-14 at 07:13, Alastair Lack wrote: > I feel a significant difference between events such as the invention > of the telephone, which though interesting would not have affected my > ancestors survival very significantly, and epidemics of disease (the > Influenza of 1919), Famine (Irish potato famine of 1847) or political > events such as the Highland clearances, all of which changed my > ancestors lives. Anyway - that's what I shall work on, and share the > results with you all!
I hope this isn't swaying off topic... In my view, there are *two* significant areas. One is as you noted, what affects our ancestors' survival. The other area is those events which induce a family or the more adventurous members thereof, to migrate elsewhere. The economics of southern England early 1600's plus Cromwell plus Puritan needs brought one of the primary migrations to the USA for example. The USA Civil War killed people, obviously, but also wrought catastrophic changes in families' fortunes and situations. (I don't know what Highland clearances are; I might be repeating what you just said!) Ed Barnard, researching pioneers of Callaway County Missouri USA Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
