Who Do You Think You Are?

The thing about family history is that once the knowledge is uncovered, there's not a lot to do. For pretty much my entire life I have been addicted to my family history. My Mum (who has now passed) and I used to sit down for hours and discover and ask questions of people and listened to stories from relatives. It was fascinating and we jotted down bits and pieces and added it into the archives of what we knew. It was something that we really shared and loved sharing. It was only a year before Mum died that I started to put a proper family tree together for my precious little daughter. I knew how special it was to me to connect to my past and I really wanted that to pass on to my daughter.... a few months before my Mum died I called her to tell her that I had discovered a generation two back on her father's side. She was so excited and that phone call we had, where she listed off uncles and aunties that she didn't really know but had heard whispers of... it was a great conversation and one of the only times in the last 8 months of her life where I felt like she wasn't ill.

After my Mum passed my brother decided to delve into the family history - He never realised what Mum and I had been doing for the last who knows how long, so the poor guy started on his own. Once I found out what he was doing I was able to give him some information, but really he had discovered most of what I had anyway. He has done a remarkable job researching far further than I was ever able too... of course, as I said, once the research is done, there isn't anything left to do. You can't undo that you know a bit of information and pretend, so that the next person can uncover it. So I really don't do anything with it anymore. He has a lot more time and better resources than me, so although I have had to give up this hobby of mine, I am very happy that someone is researching as much as they can about my fantastic family, and doing it to a better level than I was every able. (In a few years I will probably do Jeff's family history, just so that I can claim my hobby back, but that wont be until the kids start school).

But the reason for writing all this... Since a very little girl I fell in love with the fact that my Dad's family was from Wales. I had such curiousity and compassion for these people, my blood relatives, who would pack up their family and move them across the world, just to keep from working in the Welsh Mines. It felt to me that I belonged to a family who would fight the hardest fight to keep themselves, their brothers and sisters and children, safe. It felt to me that because of this I was always going to be looked after.

There was such a heirarchal link between me and my great uncle. I adored him, more than most I have ever met, with the exception of my parents, my husband and kids. He was the most fantastic man, and I am saddened every day that my brothers and sisters never really knew him, at least not like I did. We had a connection that was unbreakable, he knew it and I knew it, and he reminded me of that fact frequently.

I am watching the (US version of) "Who Do You Think You Are?" series at the moment. It has really reminded me of the connection that I have to my families past and the deep sense of, oh I doubt know, bloodline, trust, connectiveness, belief, basis... all those kind of trusting words, that I feel.

I think that I would love everyone to feel that sense of connection that I feel. I hope that people feel it like I feel it!