Family Tree

Working on the tree last night I discovered, through the Ancestry website, a lady who is descended from a common ancestor. The ancestor in question is my great-grandmother, on my father's side, Ellen E Lafford whose brother Albert is the direct descendent of the lady I mentioned. Looking at her family tree (I couldn't help but feel I was somehow intruding, especially as she's put up quite a few photographs) and looking at the faces of all these strangers, it was odd to think of how we share this common link, albeit one which goes back to the late nineteenth century, and to consider the different paths our families have taken. It's strange too, to consdier the thought that my descendents will, one day down the line, be complete strangers... and then of course the mind begins to wander - or rather run with it all - and positively boggles when considering all those others living today with whom I share so many ancestors; people to whom, however distantly, I am related.

This of course brings me back round to the point of much of my artwork, the idea of all those anonymous people swallowed up by history; the faces on the photographs of Oxford which I've started to collect, names on memorials, names lost altogether, and I'm reminded again of the words of Rilke in his novel, 'The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge' when he says (always worth quoting in full):

"Is it possible that the whole history of the world has been misunderstood? Is it possible that the past is false, because one has always spoken of its masses just as though one were telling of a coming together of many human beings, instead of speaking of the individual around whom they stood because he was a stranger and was dying?

Yes it is possible.

Is it possible that one believed it necessary to retrieve what happened before one was born? Is it possible that one would have to remind every individual that he is indeed sprung from all who have gone before, has known this therefore and should not let himself be persuaded by others who knew otherwise?

Yes it is possible.

Is it possible that all these people know with perfect accuracy a past that has never existed? Is it possible that all realities are nothing to them; that their life is running down, unconnected with anything, like a clock in an empty room?

Yes it is possible."

Researching my family tree is a desire perhaps to be anything but a clock in an empty room. Rather, to quote Roland Barthes, I would prefer to be what he describes as cameras being; a clock for seeing.

I was recently reading a book of work by George Perec, and in particular a transcription of a conversation he had with someone called Frank Venaille. In it he describes himself as a unanimist:

"a literary movement that didn't produce much but whose name I very much like. A movement that starts with yourself and goes towards others. It's what I call sympathy, a sort of projection, and at the same time an appeal!"

Again, this describes what my research is all about, something which starts with myself and goes towards others, a sort of sympathy with history, or at least, with those who have been lost to history. It is a projection of oneself onto the face of the past and as Perec states (although this might not be his meaning) an appeal to be remembered.

Having thought for many years about researching my family tree, I finally took the plunge a few months ago and in that time have made what I would term very reasonable progress. I have been helped not least by the wonders of the web and in particular the Ancestry website, but also by my family, in particular both my grandmothers, who at 95 are thankfully still with us - memories intact. There are also a good deal of family photographs available - a mountain of them still yet to be gone through - which help paint pictures of those one knows only by a name - a thread if you like, but it's through talking with my grandmothers that the past comes truly alive, in the revelation of tiny, almost 'insignificant' details which collapse into a second, the years and decades of almost a century of time.

Parts of the family have as one expects been easier to trace than others and there have been more than a couple of wrong turns (with more to come I'm sure), but that is all part of what makes it worthwhile. (Indeed, one of the things which has struck me through my research is how unlikely it is that we're born at all and how much we depend for our existence, not just on our direct descendents, but all those they encountered in the course of their lives - but that subject is for another time). These wrong turns I will document in a separate section.

My paternal grandmother's line in South Wales has been difficult in places to uncover, but nonetheless particularly rewarding; a planned trip to the place where she was born and raised next month should hopefully clarify a few things. Most importantly, it will put her childhood on the map - my map so to speak, for knowing a place only by a name, is just like knowing the name of an ancestor and nothing else besides. Being there makes all the difference. Her husband's side of the family, my grandfather from whom I get my surname, all hail from Oxford, and although that hasn't made things any easier, it has in terms of placing them in their environment, one which I of course share - at least in part.

There have also been a few surprises (with more - like mistakes - to come); the male line on my mother's side, which we always supposed hailed from deepest Reading turn out to have originated (at least in the sense of 'at the beginning of the nineteenth century') in Oxford. This line of Master Tailors - the Stevens' - had a very good line in names, Jabez being a particular favourite. In fact, the wonderful names given the sheer number of children I have found, has been of particular interest in my search.

I will arrange this section of my website according to the four family names of my grandparents, those being my surname, Hedges; my mother's maiden name, Stevens; my paternal Grandmother's name, Jones; and my maternal grandmother's name, Sarjeant. More names will no doubt yield through my research and these I will include in the relevant sections above. Along with these new names I will write about any relevant places and specific people within those sections, although they may also come to be placed in the Places and People parts of my website.

The content of this blog will be incorporated into the pages in this section of the site, but the blog format I feel, allows one to read/write research as it happens and to see more clearly how developments are made and progressed.