Only See So Far, and We All have our Daddy's Eyes

Imagine if your Family Tree actually looked like this... It would be all so much easier.

Genealogy is a nightmare, when your brain works like mine.

Genealogy is a nightmare, when you have a family who originally come from Ireland, call themselves Kelly, and name every male member of the Kelly clan one of six names.

Inspired by "Who Do you Think You Are", I started looking into my family tree. All the websites had offers... credits for free... a month for free. But they know. I tell you.. they know... once you start; you just can't stop.

I'm fighting the urge right now, to go back and look again. Find that illusive Kelly...

But what they don't tell you on the programme is which branch of the tree to follow.

I started simply ; Our kids, me and si - our parents, their parents... four generations... and for families who are broken, and repaired this adds another line.

My side is straight up and down... Me and Si had two - My Mum had two, my mum was one of two....

My Dad - he was one of six... and his parents also big families... And that's where you hit the Kelly's. His mum was a Kelly - and her brothers, James, Charles, Alexander... All had big families themselves.... and they all have big families.

My Aunty M... (She is on the left-hand side of the tree, the branch which curls out and then up); keeps a big book, and researches diligently. She would happily fill in my gaps... and has a complete record of her tree - and therefore a bit of mine....

Beloved.. Oh dearie me.... lots of people. lots of places, lots of strange names, not you would think, difficult to trace, but weirdly are. Yes.

And what do you do.... Father to father's family, father to mothers family, mother to mother, to father, to father to mother? It's such a massive, massive task. So many names, so many dates....

And I don't have a lovely voice over telling me how the French King courted my great-great-great Grandmother...

Dang.