Last night I watched a repeat of the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are?, featuring Jeremy Paxman. For those who don't know, this is a series of programmes featuring a celebrity tracing his or her family tree. What surprised me about this particular programme was that Paxman, usually so self assured, was visibly upset by the struggles of his ancestors against poverty and disease. As he said. what his ancestors went through was no different from what hundreds of thousands of others went through in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The difference, of course, is that he has a connection with these particular people. I suppose the point is that if it wasn't for their struggles through adversity, we wouldn't be here at all.
A few years ago I investigated my paternal family tree, and published a small web site (note that the menu on the site doesn't work too well now, due to changes in web browsers), showing the results. As far as I can tell, my ancestors came from a similar 'working class' background to Paxman's ancestors. I'll never know much about most of these people, not even what they looked like, but I do know that I owe a debt to them that I can never repay.
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