Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1893-11-25
eRNAl ANCESTORS.
How Many Can Tell Their Own More
Than Two Generations Back:

How Many Can Tell Their Own More
Than Two Generations Back:
n conversation among u group of
people the other day, all of whom were
OF good New England families, brought
out some curious admissions. Only one
of the party could trace his descent. in
I'll" line of mothers, further than to the
grandmother, though several could
trace it very much further in the patcr.
nal line, and even in what they called
the "matcrnal line" which meant. of
course. the mothers fathers family.
All present could tell the maiden name
of their mothers mother, but only one
could tell the maiden name of her
mother. OF course many in New Eng
land among those genealogically care
ful people who can tell you the names
of all their sixteen great-great grand
fathers and grandmothers can do this;
Dut these are comparatively few. And
those who cannot carry back the line
of mothers more than three generations
include the representatives of some of
the most aristocratic families in New
England, whose line of paternal descent
is unbrOkcn to the Settlement and be-
yond.
Let us think for moment what this
question involves. Suppose you write
down your own name. Then write
down on one line just above it the
names of your father and mothcr-thc
fathers name first on the left, the
mothers second on the right You per-
ceive that these two people had an
equal interest in your being There is
at least chance that you are like your
mother in important physical and men,
tai respects. Now set down on a line
above these two names the names of
your grandfathers and grandmothers.
beginning with your fathers father and
ending with your mothers mother
These two couplets, again, had as much
and as equal an interest in your father
and your mother as your own father
and mother had in you, and there is in
you as much of your mothers mother
as there is of your fathers father. Now
above this line write down the names
or your eight Observation-Disclosures, which
you should surely be able to do if you
are Yankee. Each one of these eight
had an equal interest in you. Now you
perceive that you have a pyramid
standing on its apex. You are the
apex. The lcft-hand edge of it is your
line of mothers. In all likelihood YOU
derive rather more of your character
istics from the right-hand edge of the
pyramid tllan you do from the left;
and while, in all probability, if you are
of good New England family. you can
go on stretching out the left-hand edge
of the inverted pyramid, you cannot
go on with the right-hand edge any
further; and this means that your gene
alogy is one-Sidcd and partial thing.
70 women the sentimental loss in
volvcd in this ignorance of their moth
ers must be considerable. The fact
that even maternal descent does not
mean the real maternal line, but nero
ly step one side to another line of
paternal descent is an indication of
the slight regard in which their SEX
has been held. There are plenty OF
women in New England who can tell
from what man of the seventeenth CEN
tuly. in an unbroken line of men. they
are descended but probably not one
woman. or man either, in New Eng
land, can tell from what woman of
that epoch. in the line of women, he or
she is descended. 1t is certainly Il
slight to motherhood that the line OF
mothers is so little rcgarded.-Boston
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