One of the books that most influenced me when I was a young man was Doomsday Book and Beyond by Frederick William Maitland. The Doomsday Book is a compilation of data that William the Conqueror had collected to determine what taxes people owed from before he invaded England. It became known as Doomsday because there was no appealing the evidence therein. If the book said you did or didn't own something, no other proof could be advanced against it.
One unintended effect of the Doomsday Book was that it collected an immense amount of data English society. We know far more about what people did and had and how they lived and died at that moment than we know about any of the hundreds of years that preceded it and the hundreds that followed. The book, then, is a useful lens to view English history through.
The same is true of the history of the descendants of James Costigan. We have a lot of data about the family in 1901, far more than we have on the 50-60 years they were in Canada up until that point and far, far more than we know of the family history in Ireland. We will eventually know a lot more about the years after 1901 but much of the relevant data is still protected by privacy laws and hidden in letters and diaries that no one knows about just yet.
1901 was also a year of massive change for the family. To be blunt, the family stopped being outlaws and became successful social climbers. Social climber is not usually a term of respect, although it's definitely a step up on "outlaw", but it should be. The family went from living the slums of Saint John's Irish ghetto to upper-middle class suburbs in just 60 years and that is damned impressive. 1901 was also the year that the family went from being dominated by men to being dominated by women. The successful social climb was mostly driven by two women—Annie Gertrude and Kathleen Costigan—who taught and pushed their children to make the move. They showed them how to rise above being, as Kathleen often put it, "cheap and common people".
But before we get to that we need to get back to 1901. We know a lot about the family and a lot about the world they lived in. I'll be sharing what I have learned on the blog over the next few weeks.
One unintended effect of the Doomsday Book was that it collected an immense amount of data English society. We know far more about what people did and had and how they lived and died at that moment than we know about any of the hundreds of years that preceded it and the hundreds that followed. The book, then, is a useful lens to view English history through.
The same is true of the history of the descendants of James Costigan. We have a lot of data about the family in 1901, far more than we have on the 50-60 years they were in Canada up until that point and far, far more than we know of the family history in Ireland. We will eventually know a lot more about the years after 1901 but much of the relevant data is still protected by privacy laws and hidden in letters and diaries that no one knows about just yet.
1901 was also a year of massive change for the family. To be blunt, the family stopped being outlaws and became successful social climbers. Social climber is not usually a term of respect, although it's definitely a step up on "outlaw", but it should be. The family went from living the slums of Saint John's Irish ghetto to upper-middle class suburbs in just 60 years and that is damned impressive. 1901 was also the year that the family went from being dominated by men to being dominated by women. The successful social climb was mostly driven by two women—Annie Gertrude and Kathleen Costigan—who taught and pushed their children to make the move. They showed them how to rise above being, as Kathleen often put it, "cheap and common people".
But before we get to that we need to get back to 1901. We know a lot about the family and a lot about the world they lived in. I'll be sharing what I have learned on the blog over the next few weeks.
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