Family histories, a series of Firsts and Mosts

While researching my family tree, looking for details to flesh-out my cast of thousands (5775 at the time of writing), it's occurred to me that what I'm finding is a series of firsts and other superlatives, which create the 'Wow!' moments and fire my imagination.

Beyond the usual life milestones of birth, work, marriage, children and death, there is so much potential for something more interesting. We may not all be able trace our ancestry back to William the Conqueror or significant world events, but most people's lives aren't part of the large-scale, 'important' history of rulers and wars. And because most people weren't regarded as important individually, their history is told in terms of statistics: the population of cities, numbers of deaths during wars and disease outbreaks, birth rates, numbers of workers in various occupations or unemployed.

The biographies of individuals and families, the society, culture and location in which they lived, are potential 'microhistories', history at a human scale, with which it's so much easier to identify. Sometimes, they had simple lives, and all I can find is records of the usual milestones. And then there are those who are elusive and you can't find out about them fully (what were they hiding, or were they just unlucky that their records have been lost?), and those who were in some way extraordinary.

The firsts and other significant incidents are not always easy to find, but can be fun to look for. Here's a list of suggestions. You could build your own Bingo! game.

Trigger Warning, Some of these firsts and mosts are nice things, but you may find some of them disturbing or uncomfortable. Seriously, some of these are awful things you wouldn't wish on your ancestral relatives, or anyone at all!

Births

• First child out of wedlock
• First paternity suit
• First child fostered
• First foster-child
• First child given up for adoption
• First adopted child
• First 'nurse child'
• Most neglectful/irresponsible parents
• First set of twins
• Any advance on twins?
• First mother to produce a dozen children
• First family with 15 children from the same parents
• Any advance on 15?
• Most children from series of marriages/blended families
• Largest age difference between eldest and youngest child
• Smallest age difference between two siblings

Occupations

• Most number of different occupations held throughout life
• Most unusual/strangest occupation
• Most gruesome occupation
• Most gender non-conforming occupation
• Most embarrassing (to modern sensibilities)
• Most interesting way to make a living
• Most important/awesome/significant occupation

Personal

• Most travelled
• First migrant/immigrant
• First LGBTQi person
• Most famous (and for what?)
• Most interesting way to meet a future partner
• Longest life
• First criminal accused
• Frist criminal convicted
• First deportation
• Most infamous (and why?)

Marriage & Divorce

• First person to four marriages
• Any advance on four?
• First same-sex marriage
• First cancelled marriage
• Shortest time between the loss of a spouse and remarriage
• First bigamous marriage
• First incestuous marriage
• First pedigree collapse (eg due to cousin marriage)
• First multple pedigree collapse
• Most siblings of one family married to siblings of another family
• First marriage between different nationalities and/or ethnicities (I don't accept the concept of 'race')
• First less-typical partnership (ménage a trois, poly, etc.)
• First evidence of domestic violence
• First separation
• First divorce
• First remarriage to former spouse

Death

• Most tragic death
• Most unfair-seeming and untimely death
• Strangest cause of or events leading to death
• Most gruesome death
• First suicide
• First murder victim
• First execution
• First presumed dead who turned up alive
• First faked death

Research

• Most unusual source/record
• Worst transcription
• First frustratingly solid brick wall
• First breakthrough on a brick wall (which may just lead to another brick wall, but it's progress, however small)

My parents and their ancestors came from different counties and in some cases, countries, without links between the two sides of the family. My parents marriage created that link. So far, I haven't found any other links, bit it's still possible, as I move to more distant branches of cousins and with people's increased mobility from the late 19th into the 20th century, that I might find a coincidence which brings both sides of the family together. Perhaps there is a marriage, or perhaps they were neighbours, or worked at the same place, blissfully unaware of their relationship to me and all the other people on my spreading tree.