Pride. Pretty much all evil can be traced back to pride. The thing is, pride can also create the most annoyingly unnecessary situations when peoples pride causes them to be embarrassed...

 

Remember how I said that I have an ancestor who maybe doesn't have the best reputation? Well, I had cause to look her up today because my sister was asking for family stories I may have. Well, I must say, I was fairly blown away by the complete mess she's in because some of her descendants seem to be embarrassed by her.

 

Her name was Elizabeth. She was born in a little village called Weston Beggard, just outside of Hereford, in Herefordshire, England. She was born to Benjamin and Hester. In 1807 she gave birth to my 3rd great grandfather, also called Benjamin. Six years later, she gave birth to another son, whom she named Richard. All evidence shows that both boys were "base born," but apparently this offends some people because, if you look her up on FamilySearch Family Tree, you'll discover that she was "married" to at least 6 different men...and there is absolutely ZERO proof of any of this.

 

There are two reasons why this mess could have happened, and both of them chap my hide: 1) people aren't actually doing any verifying; and 2) people are so desperate to weed out even the mere scent of impropriety that they have opted, instead, to try and hide it.

 

By making this mess of her life, people aren't honoring her memory, they are making her out to be something she wasn't. In the record of Richards baptism Elizabeth is listed as a pauper. In the record of her father's death, he is listed as a pauper. These are the facts. They can't, and shouldn't, be glossed over. Remember what I said in my last post? We're all human and humans are imperfect! It's true, people were people long before we, who are living now, were people! People make mistakes, they do stupid things! But trying to hide or obliterate the portions of their lives that we don't like serves no good purpose.

 

So what's the answer here? Two answers: 1) deal with the past because it's in the past and there's nothing you can do to change it, but don't compound past mistakes by trying to hide or obliterate them; 2) verify, verify, verify. If you're going to tell a lie, at least be smart enough to tell one that can't be verified.

 

Proverbs 16:18-19