The British has this fascination of searching their family history. What's amazing is that a lot of these 'researchers' really traced their ancestors born in the early 17th century, or even beyond that.
K even tried to trace his ancestors from his mother's side. When he stumbled upon some facts on his supposed-to-be bloodline, it was a gem of a find which amused his mother to no end. Google must have had a great time establishing connection between K and Prince William! Agh, imagine? K is Prince Charles' million-degree cousin? Great.
Anyway, why is this fascination at its peak? There was already a BBC TV series acompanied by a book titled Who Do You Think You Are. Hundreds of books claiming to be experts in tracing family histories are in libary and bookstore shelves everywhere. An old lady came to me at work asking how she could find details about Stavely iron works where her great grandfather used to work in the early 18th century.
I mean, i'm not against all these spending the rest of our post-retirement years searching about dead ancestors. But what about the cousins and other relatives who are still alive? K has cousins all over the world whom he has not seen for decades. Why not establish contact with them via email or phone, get to know them, visit them, and be like the family that they really are?
Ok, granting that it's good to know who our ancestors are, know what they did and learn their love stories...I mean so what??? How about our cousin in Wales who's got ten cats because she couldn't have children? How about our nephew in Tottenham who's got stomach cancer because of too much McDo? And what about that auntie in Scotland who bought the castle next door because she believed her husband's spirit resides in their. WHY not connect with them and forget the dead who doesn't even care how expensive your ipod is or doesn't wanna know why the f* you have 3 laptops at home?!
Now, nobody in this house is ever gonna pay for that historical society leaflet.
I know it's only 10p, but No.
K even tried to trace his ancestors from his mother's side. When he stumbled upon some facts on his supposed-to-be bloodline, it was a gem of a find which amused his mother to no end. Google must have had a great time establishing connection between K and Prince William! Agh, imagine? K is Prince Charles' million-degree cousin? Great.
Anyway, why is this fascination at its peak? There was already a BBC TV series acompanied by a book titled Who Do You Think You Are. Hundreds of books claiming to be experts in tracing family histories are in libary and bookstore shelves everywhere. An old lady came to me at work asking how she could find details about Stavely iron works where her great grandfather used to work in the early 18th century.
I mean, i'm not against all these spending the rest of our post-retirement years searching about dead ancestors. But what about the cousins and other relatives who are still alive? K has cousins all over the world whom he has not seen for decades. Why not establish contact with them via email or phone, get to know them, visit them, and be like the family that they really are?
Ok, granting that it's good to know who our ancestors are, know what they did and learn their love stories...I mean so what??? How about our cousin in Wales who's got ten cats because she couldn't have children? How about our nephew in Tottenham who's got stomach cancer because of too much McDo? And what about that auntie in Scotland who bought the castle next door because she believed her husband's spirit resides in their. WHY not connect with them and forget the dead who doesn't even care how expensive your ipod is or doesn't wanna know why the f* you have 3 laptops at home?!
Now, nobody in this house is ever gonna pay for that historical society leaflet.
I know it's only 10p, but No.
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