Black Sheep Ancestors

January 1, 2013 — 5 Comments

black sheep in dreadlocks

When a family member does something disgraceful or distasteful the general way it is handled is by denial. The person who commits suicide or bigamy or general black sheepery is dropped from the story.  Three of my grandfathers, fall into this category. My paternal great-grandfather, Edward Ewing Scott, married another woman while he was married to my great-grandmother who had 4 young daughters at home. My other paternal great-grandfather , Jason A Morse, was referred to as a bum, had a wild Cherokee wife purported to be a witch  (after his boy’s mother died), and was never mentioned favorably to me.  I very recently have seen his picture which was sent to me by a cousin. My mother’s father, George H Taylor,  killed himself at home leaving his 10 kids orphaned during the depression.  I have never seen a picture of George H, and did not know about his suicide until I was a teenager.  One of my first cousins had a very elaborate suicide downtown Houston  in the 1960’s which brought the subject back to light. I remember thinking how weird it was that nobody had ever told me.  His wife, my grandmother, had died at home as well, in childbirth.  I knew about that, but not his suicide. This denial makes it very hard to find information about the black sheep and how they blackened themselves.

This is your shadow family.  This is the information that has specifically not been given to you in  an effort to protect you in some way.  This is the nature that is hidden in an effort to improve the self-image of the family through spin.  Everyone wants to believe that his or her family represents the best and most worthy genetic material.  If you can remember your parents being imperfect, then you can extrapolate how imperfect your entire tree really may be. If you look closely you may be frightened that we all descend from loonies.  If you look more closely you will see how this evens out over time.  The concept of the family curse is as real as the family glory and royalty.  We have all arrived at this point in history together because of a long line of imperfect beings who survived and tweaked the story along the way.