WHAT ELSE CAN THE RECORDS REVEAL?-LOOKING AT THE RECORDS THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS
Using parish & other records to determine how climate and epidemics impacted our ancestors’ lives
REFERENCES
Fisk, Harold. (1944). Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River. Conducted for the Mississippi River Commission, Vicksburg, MS. (maps available for viewing online at http://www. radicalcartography.net/index.html?fisk)
A 17th century etching of the St Elizabeth’s Day flood – when on the night of 19 November 1421 a large area of what is now Holland was flooded, with 23 villages submerged in the Dordrecht area
Scott, Susan & Christopher Duncan. (1997). The Mortality Crisis of 1623 in North-West England. Local Population Studies, vol. 58 (Spring), pp 14-25.
Sear, David, Andy Murdock, Tim LeBas, Paul Baggaley & Gemma Doneghan. (2013). Dunwich, Suffolk: Mapping and assessing the inundated medieval town. 171 pp. Retrieved 9 April 2014 from http://www.dunwich.org.uk/ resources/documents/dunwich_12_report.pdf
Using parish & other records to determine how climate and epidemics impacted our ancestors’ lives
Shepheard, Wayne & Samantha Tucker. (2016). 1689 Burial anomalies in Parishes of South West Devon. Devon Family Historian, no. 157, pp. 26-30.
Shepheard, Wayne. (2017). Your Ancestors and the Little Ice Age. Family Tree, Christmas issue, 34(3), pp. 41-45.
Natural phenomena have significantly affected the lives and livelihoods of our ancestors. Such events, in many instances, were important in influencing decisions to relocate, perhaps even as much as factors like religious persecution, cultural differences, economics, poverty, land ownership restrictions, war or politics.
Shepheard, W. Wayne. (2018a). Surviving Mother Nature’s Tests: The effects climate change and other natural phenomena have had on the lives of our ancestors. St. Agnes, South Australia: Unlock the Past. 179 pp.
Major sources of information
Shepheard, Wayne. (2018b). Genealogy and the Little Ice Age. Family Tree Webinars. View at https://familytreewebinars.com (subscriber access)
Finding information that demonstrates what events occurred and how they impacted people and communities is an important part of constructing complete family histories. Following are some of the major sources of such information.
Shepheard, Wayne. (2018c). Losing the land of our ancestors. Family Tree, October issue, 34(13), pp 41-45.
Family stories
Shepheard, Wayne. (2019a). The History of Occupations. Family Tree, March issue, 35(6), pp. 12-19.
Some people are fortunate to have had parents or grandparents recount their life experiences. Mother Nature may have been involved in some of these stories, imposing her wrath to the extent people lost homes or livelihoods, were injured or killed, or decided to move.
Shepheard, Wayne (2019b). Families in Peril: The New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12. Going In-Depth Magazine, April issue, 7(3), pp. 20-26.