Genealogy - defined as
'an account of the descent of a person or
family through an
ancestral line', or alternatively, 'the investigation of
pedigrees as a department
of knowledge', is an over complicated description of what, to the rest of us,
is known simply as 'tracing the family tree'.
Nostalgia, to the fore in
recent years, has found a wealth of collectible
interests emerging
amongst a public ever eager to get hands on
anything connected with
the past: old postcards, postage stamps,
paper ephemera, 195Os and
'60s memorabilia - and family trees! It
seems that today we are
not content to know just how our ancestors
lived - and I mean
specific ancestors, namely those whose genes,
characteristics and
hereditary behavior are the sum result of our very
being. We want to know
exactly who those people were: where they
lived; what they did for
a living; whether that story of highwaymen,
criminals and corrupt
relatives is factual, or a figment of Grandma's
over-active imagination.
Today so many people are
eager to trace their own family histories
that once desolate Public
Record Offices are now able to operate a
timetable system, for
which those who now fill its halls to carry out
their own research, must
make an appointment to do so. These
treasure chests of
registers, records, census documents and various
other documented pieces
of evidence on the lives of those before us,
are now little hives of
activity, filled with enthusiastic researchers from
the moment their doors
open.
But a day is never
enough; a day can sometimes culminate in
mountains of useful
information destined to provide a large proportion
of one's family history;
it might instead yield nothing.
Perhaps though, one of
the very best things about researching your
family tree, is the
wonderful way it can bring the past to life as you not
only read of who your
ancestors were, but can also see the exact same
things they saw in the
course of their lives: churches they attended;
street scenes and
activities they might have taken for granted; special
events; strikes and
invaluable insights into yesterday's working
environment;
shops with staff posing outside, and much, much more.