Sat on the floor, surrounded by printed records, wielding my stapler with abandon, I suddenly became horrified by what I was doing. I had people’s lives laid out before me. I was reducing each one to a tidy pile of paper.
It seemed wrong..
I was dealing with individuals who had experienced triumphs and disasters, joy and pain, love and heartbreak, They had not lived only in two dimensions . Were our lives really that simple-a collection of dates, places, jobs?
I remember my deep love of the book Possession and how it had inspired my own family research, as I had struggled fighting for space, with heavy, handwritten tomes in St Catherine’s house, London.(This was almost thirty years ago, before almost everything could be found on the web. Still there is nothing quite like the feel and smell of original, musty old documents.) I found myself very much identifying with the researchers in A.S.Byatt’s book Possession, as I handled original, hand-written documents, seeking the stories within..
I note that the following blog writer also intends to read this book this year https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/107075088/posts/13 3
My blog is my story of my efforts to reach beyond the paperwork , to uncover the stories.
Some family trees have beautiful leaves and some just have nuts but remember it’s the nuts which make the tree worth shaking.
By Unknown
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