Almanac Life: Ashton Agar [may] meet Ivar the Boneless

 

 

 

 

For my retirement sins – and with more than a little enjoyment – I write editorials for the Surfcoast Times and feature articles for the Lorne Independent ‘down here on the coast’.

One who seems to enjoy reading my ramblings is none other than a long-time kindred, ex-Geelong great – and for a brief period of turn-coat-ism, Richmond, where he just happened to snag a premiership appearance – Gareth Andrews. Gareth persuaded … nay bulldozed … me in the direction of the Almanackers.

“It’s right up your alley, Johnny,” blithely saith he as he slapped off my name to none other than Almanacker-in-chief, JTH.

Wham! – an immediate response came back from JTH – which included the oft-asked and inevitable question: “are you related to …?”

In brief – believe me, the longer version is a very long story – by 2013, I had started an e-family history [desultorily populated with some 44 ancestors]. Suddenly, the first test of that ill-fated 2013 series unearthed a supernova innings of 98 for the last wicket that plastered the family name across the international tableau.

As ‘his’ dad also goes by ‘John’, it took but a millisecond for 774, The Age, and a raft of other news-hungry media hounds to come a-knocking!

“No” … I repeatedly had to say when asked if I was Ashton’s father [with a tinge of envy, I might add] …”I am not he”.

But … and here’s the thing! … my grandfathers’ eldest brother was Edward Ashton Agar [you may insert here as many exclamation marks as you see fit].

Even more, as press photos and TV interviews of proud Ashton-father John [more envy] appeared, they showed a man who could seriously be my physical twin! … though I have since somewhat ‘paunched-up’ in this wine and chocolate bullet era of pandemic isolation.

There just had to be a connection!

“What chance is there,” asked I of myself, “of two relatively uncommon names being thus linked – and all in the space of three generations?”

And so began ‘the search’ …

Loathe to impose on the privacy of the prodigy’s family, I sought to prove the link by a meticulous investigation of our ‘shared’ ancestry.

My e-tree now includes luminaries like Ivar the Boneless [as a Vikings-devotee … YES … none other!] … Somerled, Lord of the Isles [my ‘I-would-happily-die-for-him’ ancestor] … a smattering of Scottish and English kings … a few peers of the realm … a cause célèbre, rabidly homosexual MP from the UK … and a slew of the famous, infamous and inconsequential [the latter, dominant] … all as direct ancestors.

But, despite the search having spawned …

 

• an e-total of exactly 3090 names [many now with extensive historical notes researched and addended]

 

Plus …

• a slightly rumpy-pumpy historical ‘massacre’ novella sited in the 1647 Scottish Highlands and starring my ten-generations grandfather … note, here, that after my initial dreams of the Miles Franklin or even the Man Booker, I was demoted to a [perhaps] Mills and Boon status by ‘those in the know’
… nary yet a link to Ashton!

Here comes the obvious question: should I now contact ‘the family?’

… but as I have sought ‘the link’ in such a clandestine, almost underhand way over two-thirds of a decade and still have drawn a blank, I now feel almost too embarrassed to go back to where I should have started! The one potential saving grace? … if we are related, Ashton could then claim a paternal lineage to Ivar the Boneless.

So, JTH … ‘no … no relation’ [as yet] … but ever the search goes on!

Now that was but a potted version of a biblical length search. Don’t ask for more – I suspect you would regret it.

 

 

Read more of Ivar the Boneless HERE

 

 

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au home page click HERE

 

 

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