readme.txt

So what's this all about?

Like all amateur genealogists, I believe that everyone else naturally shares my insatiable interest in my family tree, and that the complete and utter lack of demand for me to start my own blog about it is simply down to the selflessness of everyone I know and their reluctance to add more to my already over-crowded schedule.

Seriously?

I don't do serious if I don't have to.  Perhaps that's something I've inherited.  I should look into that.

Still, looking at your family tree in detail can be a serious business, not to mention a large investment if you are going to try to track down all those other branches to see what your ancestor's siblings were doing.  There's often an equally large investment made only to find definitive proof that you've been tracing the wrong family all along.

Whatever the result, I can't deny that I love the research, piecing together lives and trying to uncover more than just when they hatched, matched and despatched.  These people loved, hated, ate, ailed, read or couldn't read, had friends or were lonely, travelled far or lived all their lives in one village, gossiped about their neighbours or debated major world events: they lived lives which managed to be both completely foreign and surprisingly familiar to modern eyes.

How often will you post?

I'm not getting paid for this (but would be delighted to accept a regular paycheque if someone were so inclined...).  In addition to my massive extended family, there are also people living in my house who seem to want my attention from time to time, plus I have a job I have to turn up for if I want it to keep funding my research hobby.  I'll aim to post at least once a week when things aren't too hectic in real life, and will try not to lose interest in blogging as has happened several times in the past.

Family Tree Surgeon?

I'm coming to this a bit late.  All the good names were taken.

Anyway...

I can't claim to have the definitive answer, but here are some of the conclusions I - and my army of distant cousins - have reached.  Perhaps the magic power of the internet and the all-seeing Google will bring this blog to an as-yet-unknown relative who has a stack of old letters or a diary which will answer everything.  Or not, but at least I'll have some fun writing about it and hope you enjoy reading it.