all your yesterdays
Above: Bob Spilsted: Traced his family back to the 1550s
IMAGINE a curious jigsaw. At first it appears to be a puzzle like any other, with pieces fitting together to form a larger landscape. On closer inspection, one discovers 90 per cent of it is missing, there is no completed picture to work from and the pieces are in fact unpredictable people, of an unknown quantity, spidering off indefinitely.
This is the impossible task faced by befuddled genealogists everywhere and yet they soldier on undaunted, driven by a longing to find their place in time and complete the patchwork quilt of granddads, great aunts and cousins thrice removed.
While some may discover blood links to local celebrities, others overturning rocks can sometimes reveal scandalous surprises. Hidden within every family tree lurk secrets and soap-opera storylines of illegitimate children, tragic heroes and epic journeys.
More often than not it is formidable 50-somethings who are particularly susceptible to the genealogy bug. Initial symptoms start with nagging unanswered questions about your grandparents and soon you’re hooked.
Thanks to advancements in online searching, coupled with a host of helpful Sussex societies, it has never been a better time to trace lineage. Sussex genealogy societies have collectively amassed around 5,000 members world-wide and inquiries to county council record offices have leapt by 1,000 year on year.
The burgeoning popularity of family history is in itself an interesting subject. At one time hits on genealogy websites were second only to porn and in this week alone ancestry.com is likely to have added around 7.5 million people to family trees. One theory is centred on the need to feel part of something greater, something immovable and eternal. Elizabeth Hughes from East Sussex records office puts it best: “Society is more fluid nowadays. We want to know who we are because we are not necessarily living where our ancestors were. Family history gives you a sense of belonging, of who you are and where you come from.”
West Sussex Council records office, rated among one of the top five in the country, has had to extend its opening hours. Archivist Alison McCann says: “We are open six days a week and late on Thursdays in response to public demand. We have ten computers where people can access ancestry.com for free and 25 miles of documents but our biggest asset is our search room staff, who have 140 years experience between them.
“We once held an open evening a year ago for those curious to trace their family tree and we had a flood of people. We stopped counting at 605 and had to start limiting numbers.”
The team deals with people from all over the world whose family tree has branched into Sussex.
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