A Journey into the Past

This pandemic has lasted nearly 18 months. Needless to say, we haven’t travelled. However, I did undertake a different kind of travel: a journey into the past. My father always said that he knew next to nothing about his parents’ families. A subscription to the family history website, http://www.ancestry.ca, helped me answer basic questions about them. But the more I learned, the more intrigued I became. The reason my dad knew nothing of his family history is shame. Family myths and gaps in the family story had covered up addictions, illegitimate births, and mental illness, all shameful issues in 19th century England. I learned that, in all families, where there are secrets, there is shame.

An account of my journey is published on amazon. Part-memoir, part-social history of 19th century England, and part-research guide for the amateur family historian, this book chronicles my trip into the past. I tell the stories of the ancestors that hid in my family’s attic for 200 years. Their stories are miniatures: accounts of the ordinary lives of English people in the 19th century. Through them, I also saw broad patterns that reverberate through the generations of my family. Drawing upon my training as a psychotherapist, I use these themes to talk about common themes in families, such as favouritism. I show readers how family history research can help us gain a richer understanding, not only of our families, but of ourselves. Everyone who has gone before lives in us, as we will live in everyone who comes after.

For a preview, click on the image:

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