Family Tree

It's quite incredible how unlikely we are to be alive. Going back 30 generations (roughly to 1000 A.D.), we have over two billion ancestors! Of course, that doesn't factor in pedigree collapse - we're actually descended from the same people multiple times. However, if just one of them had died prematurely or if circumstances had meant that they had met a different partner, we would not be here. 

We don't just possess our ancestors' DNA, however. Each generation has raised the next one, imparting their values and beliefs, thus shaping our society's culture. We owe a debt too, to those whose inventions and ideas we take for granted today. Every item and product began as an idea in someone's head: the screen you're looking at, the chair you're sitting on and the clothes you're wearing.

I've always been fascinated by my family history. It occurred to me from an early age that without them I wouldn't exist. So far, I have managed to successfully and, I'm quite confident, accurately trace all of my great-great-grandparents. In some cases I have managed to go back one or two generations further. I'm probably stating the obvious, but fewer records are available the further I go back and they become more difficult to decipher. 

Some Interesting Stories

I knew my great-grandparents, George and Edna Cartwright. I remember speaking to them about their parents and grandparents as a primary-school-age child and making some notes. Sadly they were lost or more likely considered 'clutter' and binned by my unsentimental dad, along with my school photos and a letter I cherished from my granddad. 

I also knew Annie Conway, whose funeral was the first I ever attended. My memories of her are not particularly wonderful - just of an old woman who sat in a chair and whose house smelled bad! I wish someone had spoken to her about her mother, though, as I can find no records of her parents' marriage. An aunt told me that she was quite vague about her background, possibly due to stigma about being born out of wedlock. She may have been raised by an aunt, too.