Borne Afar By Hercules!

We always think we're having a hard time of it, it's human nature, things could always be better, if only our luck would change. What we tend to forget, is just how desperate and often futile were the lives our ancestors lived. We may have very different backgrounds, you and I, but the likelihood is that no matter where your family originated, you can be rest assured that there was ample frustration, misery and misfortune along the years.

What has all this to do with Hercules then (as seen in the picture above)? Well, if you've followed my posts from a while back, you will know my affinity with genealogy (family history). Yes, I've done a bit of research, and even as an amateur, I now have around 11,000 individuals on my family tree. When I was at my researching peak (not working) around 2002-2003, I uploaded my tree to several major family history websites, and I've been receiving contacts from distant relatives ever since. It's a great way of expanding your family tree without doing any real work.

Wee, in a series of odd coincidences, just lately I've been receiving independent contact from several indiviuals in Australia, claiming to be related. They are indeed related. The basis of our relationship, lies in a dark passage of Scottish history, the Highland Clearances. Around about the 1850's, our mutual ancestors were living contentedly on the island of North Uist, when the landowner, the Lord of the Isles, decided to get rid of them and replace them with sheep. They were thrown out of their houses and their houses were torn down right in front of them, often at the onset of Winter.

They were then given paid passage as bonded labour, to the colonies; either Australia, New Zealand, America or Canada. In this instance, my ancestors went to America, but returned within a few years, but a large batch of their near relatives were dispatched to South Australia, onboard a ship called the "Hercules" (tenuous connection to picture established). There they married into a already well established Irish community, became Catholics themselves (of necessity) and proceeded to have enormous families in consequence. The odd thing was that I was contacted by 3 descendants of those emigrants virtually within a day of each other, purely by coincidence. Perhaps it's in vogue right now for Australians to trace their heritage. These things do seem to become popular in certain places, all of a sudden.