Storm Doris

Doris Kenyon, 2010

Today’s storm brought obvious memories back to me of my late grandma – Doris. It felt good, if a little irrational, to idly muse that she was blowing the air about me. It made me think about my own mortality and who might even bother to look me up or muse about me in a hundred years. I thought of my grandma’s parents – long dead but well documented in my Ancestry family tree.

 

Doris Kenyon, circa 1932

I suppose unless you breakthrough into celebrity status there is nothing other than official documents or perhaps social media that will persist. It would be fascinating to go through the tweets or Facebook posts of future ancestors, although the mountain of data will be considerable. So how do you ensure that the important bits are captured? I suppose in me writing this blog I am attempting that in some way, but will it persist, and if it does will it be buried beneath all my employment and tax records?

 

I’d like to hope that there is something personal about me that is left behind. Something for future generations to grasp as to my character. When I was researching my family tree a couple of years ago I was delighted to discover that an ancestor on my paternal grandmother’s side had been arrested for stealing some corn. When all you have is Census, birth, marriage and death records being able to fill in the gaps with some extra colour makes it all worthwhile.

 

Not that I have been arrested – yet at least, although I did have a storm bearing my name earlier this year!