The Logic Off Topic list

Lots of people have ancestors who are earls or barons yet themselves don't
have or come from money.  All sorts of reasons but most often they're an
off-shoot cousin of a cousin of a cousin thing.  Americans love to find
their honored ancestors, most people I know who've traced their lineage in
America seem to find a president or baron in their family somewhere however
distant (and often strenuously related IMHO).  Except for one of them, none
have a well-off background.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Thompson" <tony@...>
To: <logic-ot@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 12:56 PM
Subject: [L-OT] Castles In The Air


>
> > I don't quite get this.  What is so ignorant about asking if the picture
is
> > where some family ancestors dwelled several hundred years ago?  It
doesn't
> > sound like the teacher asked if this is where his family lives now and
it
> > doesn't sound like his teacher assumed all Scots lived thsi way even way
> > back.  Sure, it's mildly fantastic, but no moreso than if someone from
> > Chicago said their grandfather lived in Cicero in the 1920s and another
> > person leapt to the question, "Oooh, did your grandfather know Capone?".
No
> > doubt it's rather unlikely but why not ask?
>
> Hi Wilson.
>
> This may, of course, depend on your understanding of the term 'ancestral
> home' - here. at least, it means your family owned it and usually built
it.
> I must admit I hadn't thought of it being taken any other way This is me
> trying not to trip over my big keyboard/mouth so I don't cause any more
> offence than I  already have, as I really wasn't meaning to.
>
> Castles/stately homes usually mean very very big bucks. The sort of place
> where the earl. duke, whatever, (the presumed ancestors) could easily have
> had enough money and influence to have entire villages demolished and
> landscaped to improve the view (regular practice in the 18th century) My
> nephew is a sweet ordinary kid in a family who live in an ordinary house
in
> an ordinary street, with a five year old car; he goes to an ordinary
public
> system school; he has to pack groceries in the supermarket at weekends to
> get any regular spending money and he appears to have no bigger ambitions
> than to be an auto mechanic. All of which the teacher knew. Does he sound
> like he comes from a family of dukes and earls? America has old money too.
> I'd be surprised if there are many du Pont scions (nearest example I could
> think of, since when I visited Delaware they seemed to have copyright on
the
> state) in that kind of position, though that would perhaps be a sign of
> American democracy at work...as they say in the financial ads here,
> 'remember the value of your investment can go down as well as up.
>
> Tony Thompson
>
>
>
>
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