I describe genealogy as like marmite – you either love it or you hate it. If you hate it, you are not interested in finding out about your family history, who your ancestors were, where they were from, what they did, etc. etc. On the other hand, if you love it … you want to know everything! Where did they live? How many children did they have? What would it have been like to be a X in their time?
I have commented on various occasions in the last two years since I started writing this blog that, at FWL, we consider ourselves very lucky as we can open up Pandora’s Box for our clients. We can differentiate between myths, legends, truths and untruths about their ancestry, often uncovering amazing tales from decades/centuries past. The challenge for us is that we often find fascinating stories on random branches of family trees (often irrelevant to the project we are working on) and it is very easy to get sidetracked.
Genealogy is far more than just names on a page. It’s the stories which bring those people to life, no matter how long it is since they passed away. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find a newspaper report relating to someone in your family tree? Would you mind what the article was about, or would you just been keen to find out more? How would you feel if your ancestor was bankrupt, in court or imprisoned?
The further back you go in your quest for knowledge about your forebears, the more people there are in your tree. Where do you stop? Do you trace all your cousins, whether first cousins, second cousins, third or fourth, etc.? It’s like doing a jigsaw puzzle with no edge pieces and no picture. That would be quite some mission, eh!
Do you know someone who wants to open up their Pandora’s Box? Please let them know about FWL. Give us the brief and we’ll deliver the goods.
