ANCESTORS

Researching our 'joint' family tree has been a hobby of mine since 1998 and it has been an amazing journey through the past as I've unravelled the threads of time that have been woven throughout our histories.

In the process, I've 'met' dozens of relatives all over the world.

The limbs that move, the eyes that see,
These are not entirely me;
Dead men and women helped to shape
The mold which I do not escape;
The words I speak, my written line,
These are not uniquely mine.
For in my heart and in my will
Old ancestors are warring still,
Celt, Roman, Saxon, and all the dead
From whose rich blood my veins are fed,
In aspect, gesture, voices, tone,
Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone;
In fields they tilled I plow the sod,
I walk the mountain paths they trod;
And round my daily steps arise
The good and bad of those I comprise.

~ Richard Rolle, early English mystic