I attended an interesting lecture on a man named Edwin Butterworth. He died young, about 35, in a small village in Great Britain. I was not aware that the famous Baines historian hired local folks to gather information for his works. Baines was a non-conformist so he had difficulty gaining access to many of the English churches. He was a man of considerable means as he owned newspapers so he used his money to hire people to dig into the local records. One of those men was Edwin Butterworth. I absolutely love this quote he wrote in a letter to Peter Whittle, Editor of the Preston Chronicle published in 1836:
“The sons of this ‘degenerate age’ have I fear too little taste for the interesting details of Antiquarian publications. It is a well founded complaint that the majority of books now published are flimsy, slight and too imaginative. Works abounding in matters of fact useful knowledge and pure style are few. Utility is sacrificed to the rage of things for specious nothingness. This is an era of brief ostentation not of standard excellence – periods more brilliant in elaborate literature than the present have occurred in English history.”
Umm, so I guess things haven’t changed much since 1836?! If you are finding your family’s eyes glaze over when use try to tell them about your awesome genealogical find – know that you aren’t alone. Edwin felt the same way nearly 200 years ago.
I will be heading off on an adventure for the next two weeks so no blogs until I return. Happy Hunting!