Family history is a step into the unknown world of your own creation. We are to some extent determined by our ancestors and discovering their lives and loves, professions and interests, gives us a deeper insight into our own characters and place in the world. The research can be difficult at times, rewarding at others. In the last decade the ease of researching via the Internet has transformed the whole process and those niggling questions can be resolved so much more easily.

Those skeletons in the cupboard are worth a second look. In this author’s family there were muttered remarks about a certain great grandfather, a bit of a black sheep. Researching into his life turned up the story of a man who was a passionate socialist, fought on the barricades of The Paris Commune in 1871, escaped to England with a price on his head and later returned, exonerated. He became the first Communist Presidential Candidate in France. Far from being a black sheep, he is revered in France as one of the founders of French Socialism.

His own children stayed in England and became wealthy manufacturers, embarrassed at his politics and content to let his memory disappear into the mists of time.

As you go back through the generations there’s an ever-widening number of direct ancestors and you’ll almost certainly find one or two with simply fascinating lives and achievements that will give you a reason to be proud of your own lineage.