I always thought genealogy was as dull as looking at other people’s holiday snaps – until I found out about a 16th-century architect who transformed the stately homes of his era
Friends and family, back in the 1970s, would often aggravate each other with a lengthy holiday slideshow, presenting a string of identical beach views and nameless hillside vistas over the course of a dull evening. Today, there is a new phrase that can freeze the heart just as easily as the sight of a slide projector, and it is: “I’ve done some research into my family history and you’ll never guess what I’ve found out!” A scroll bearing a family tree unrolls to reveal a roster of Jacks and Noreens, leading back to some Charleses and Marys, each perching on ever-more-distant branches and ultimately signifying little about the people who are actually living and breathing around you.
For me, this became a domestic issue a while ago, because my husband, a history buff, takes genealogy quite seriously. To be fair, he was early to spot the wider growing public interest in family history as a hobby, even before the genetic element had truly taken hold with the arrival of rival commercial DNA-tracing services.
About Author
More Stories
Virologist Wendy Barclay: ‘Wild avian viruses are mixing up their genetics all the time. It’s like viral sex on steroids’
Microsoft unveils chip it says could bring quantum computing within years
SpaceX’s Starship explodes in second failure for Musk’s Mars program