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Blogs by Judith Lawrence
Family History 7/11/2010 5:07:57 AM
I began working on my family history about 10 years ago. It is fascinating and each time I find a new piece of information, I am spurred on to search for more pieces of the puzzle. There is never a good place to break off from this endeavor, only a good place to proceed ever more vigorously on the journey back in time.
My plan, all along, has been to put the information I glean into a book or onto a CD so that my family can share in the knowledge I have found; for what is the use of the information if I do not share it with others? Two weeks ago, I finally completed my project. “Completed” is not really the correct word to use because there is so much more information yet to be found.
However, when it came to my attention that my great nieces and nephews did not know their cousins and, indeed, did not even know who they were in relation to themselves, I decided that now was the time to compile the work into a volume that family members could hold in their hands, in order to look at photographs of their ancestors and follow their way back through their parents, grandparents and beyond.
Soon, those of us who know even a little of our ancestry will no longer be in a position to pass on that knowledge to the younger generation and that is sad. The book that I have compiled is so much less than it could be but still much more than if I had done nothing.
The ancestry I have recorded reaches back almost 200 years. From four family heads, a member of our family can follow his or her descent into the present-day and see other members as they relate to them. The project is not complete but is there for others to pick up the thread.
My ancestors include those who were writers and editors, passing on their talents to me. It is my joy and pride to say that my grandfather compiled and edited the History of the County of Brecknock by Theophilus Jones in the year 1898; that my father composed a piece of music for the classical guitar, A Country Dance, along with many articles about the guitar and banjo, which he played; that my brother was an editor and journalist for an English newspaper and his son after him.
There are other threads that can be followed back through our ancestry and forward on in present and emerging generations. I hope that someone will pick up what I have put together and continue searching into the annals of time, recording further back into our family history. Each one of our ancestors had his or her place in the backdrop of our present lives and I give thanks for each life lived to God’s glory and as a stepping stone to mine.
