Trace my family tree

Ok, so I think Ive finally come to terms with the fact that there’s no interesting history in my family AT ALL.

No royal connections, no squandered fortunes, no 100 year feuds. No witchcraft, no rebellion. No nobility.

My father grew up on a farm, his father worked his whole life labouring on a farm, as did his father, and his. It’s farm hands all the way down. Tethered to the Earth for probably centuries, surviving plagues, tilling, planting, harvesting over and over. This good country where I was born.

This good country, governed by nobles, was made by peasants. Thousands upon thousands living short, uncompromising, brutal lives. Among the piss and shit and filth of their squalid, unheroic existence.

History is that of the rich and powerful. Where are the stories of my grandfathers? Why do they lead to me? What am I supposed to do for them? Protect their land? Or shag a lot and have loads of kids? Just listen to them? Try to bring them back to life? Or just be a peasant.

Ive done the research and the results are conclusive: every man in the last 200 years was called George! And the women either Mary or Elizabeth.

Im getting on ok. Ive found my paternal line up to my great great great grandfather. They all come from the same little corner of Bedfordshire. Which is a little disconcerting, seeing as my mothers side is also from roughly the same area.

Apparently it was very unusual before the 19th century to marry a girl from outside of your own village. Hmmm. Thats why you end up getting a few large families living in a village together. Hmmm.

So yes, better admit it, the gene pool where I come from isnt exactly Lake Superior. Now, I dont have 6 fingers or anything but this worries me slightly.

Or maybe its totally normal, the same all over the world. We humans have passed through a particularly narrow genetic bottleneck in the past few thousands of years, compared with, say chimps, who have much greater variation.

I now think its my duty to marry a girl from a different continent, or race, or planet, FOR THE VERY SAKE OF THE HUMAN RACE. Or a chimp.

I started already but havent got that far yet. I can go back 2 or 3 generations. Apart from asking my surviving ancestors what they know, I went on a tour of family graveyards and found a couple of my forefathers.

Its a much more real experience to see and feel a gravestone than a bit of paper from the records office.

Still got a handful of churches to check.