Back in 2016, on New Year's Day, my mother mentioned how October 2015 had marked what would have been the 100 birthday of her mother, my grandmother. By way of conversation mum went on to say how little she knew about her mother's family, and roots. My grandfather's family history was well known and documented, the family lore passed down very thoroughly. Granny's was less so. She didn't offer much in the way of information, and my mum and her brothers didn't ask. Granny's brothers had left for Canada shortly after the war, and her sister did not live nearby. They were not close, and so without other family members from her side of the family present in the family, the connections were lost. As a result of this conversation I decided that I would find out for her, and put together a book of my research, to gift to her for her birthday.
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| My grandmother- whose family history was the reason for me starting this adventure. |
Fast forward to November 2015, and I sent her the book I had created, and bound. I had only managed to complete the research about one side of her family; that of Alice Funnell, my great grandmother. I had bitten off far more than I could possibly chew. Another year or so went by before I could put together a book about the other side of granny's family; that of my great grandfather, William Nicholson Edgill.
During the Covid lockdowns of 2020 I escaped into family history, and dug around a bit to share with my father some family history related to his father's side of the family. And my mother in law also asked me to conduct some research into her family history. My tree has grown to include almost 3000 ancestors, and I have large parts of the tree that I haven't worked on yet.
My understanding and love for social history has grown over the last ten years that I have been working on our family's past. There is no better way to learn about how people lived in the past, than by finding out about your own family's past.
I have always loved a good soap opera. I actually started watching Coronation Street decades ago, when I learned that my granny had enjoyed it. After researching her family history, and finding out that her father was from Manchester, I've theorised that perhaps she enjoyed watching it because of this familial connection to the city.
I've discovered that, in my adventures into my family's past, every branch of our family tree has a soap opera of its own. It's always exciting to research a new family line, anticipating where the next drama will unfold!
And so, it's with a sense of an explorer's exhilaration that I get started on 2025's family history adventure. First is to finish off the Newell descendancy, which will take me further into the early years of the European settlement in the 'New World', and all the way back to the Plantagenets. What soap opera will I find next?!
