Why Trace your Family History?

I'm an historian, therefore there is a sense of inevitability about me wishing to trace my own family tree.

I'm in it for the stories. I want to know my roots and where my family came from. I want to know where they were during famous (and infamous) world events. I'm in it for fun and fascination.

But there are plenty of other reasons why people might explore their own family history. I'm about to take you on a journey to learn some of them. There is the man who gained access to places barred to the public, because of his bloodline. There is the woman whose life was saved through researching her family tree. Then there is the family who learned that they should really be monarchs, but for a quirk of medieval politics.

It is a very absorbing subject, filled with gems. What will you discover in your own history?

There was just one word on Lily's lips, "No." Then she fled.

She was just a teenager and they were going to cut off both of her legs. As a child raised in poverty, she had contracted rickets early on. She could walk, not very fast and in a great deal of pain, but these were her legs and she refused to let them be amputated.

Lily hid.

Back at the house, a cart had arrived to carry her to the hospital. Young Lily could hear her family calling in the street wanting her to get on it. She cowered in her hidey-hole until they'd gone away. The hours ticked into darkness, but still she didn't emerge.

It was morning before she was eventually found, but by then her tearful mother was ready to accept Lily's choices. It would be a life held in agony, but they never did summon that cart back. Lily kept her legs.

In another time and another place, Murray was willing to lose it all for love. As the eldest son and heir, he stood to inherit a comfortable amount of wealth. Now he stood in a house, in the posh suburb of town, and told his parents that he didn't care. They could disinherit him, if that was their wish, he would marry his farm girl.

His beloved Nelly was cringing, intimidated by his furious father. She knew that Murray had no concept of living on the breadline. She also acknowledged that she was not his intellectual equal. He could get bored and resent her for all he'd lost. She suggested that he should listen to his parents. She would just go home.

Murray refused. They married with neither the consent nor presence of his family. It took years and grandchildren before they relented. He received his inheritance, but never respect for his wife. His parents took their hatred of her to their graves.

There is only one link between the impoverished Lily and the defiant, middle class Murray - the marriage of my parents.

These are just two of the stories that have emerged from tracing my own family tree. There are many more. I could have shared heart-breaking scenes of suicide; a desperate escape from the Irish genocide; the triumph of a successful invention; the roaring rebellion of a man imprisoned for politics; or the shame of another man imprisoned for fraud. Even those stories would have been merely the tip of the iceberg.

I have spent decades researching my family history. One thing that I've learned is that, when the entire expanse of the past is uncovered, anything and everything can occur. These are people who had lives every bit as real as your own; and they lived them fully.

What will you uncover in your own family tree?

It was just an ordinary house in the middle of a steep Welsh terrace, but a thrill passed through the couple standing outside.

One of them had a photograph taken in that very doorway. The sepia colors were cracked and fading, but the face of her great-grandmother stared back.

Right now there was a sense of the past meeting the present. If time could have splintered, for just one moment, they would have been face to face.

Instead the front door opened and the current occupant glared from that famous doorway. "Can I ask why you're watching my house please?" The words were polite, but the tone threatened dire consequences, if this answer wasn't good enough.

The photograph was held out. "I'm researching my family history. This lady once lived here and she's my ancestor."  It took more than that. Fortunately, a laptop with the whole family tree displayed was also under her arm.

Finally the Welsh lady was appeased and her face bloomed into a wide grin. "Have something here you might be interested in." She said, and disappeared into the house. She returned with an old metal biscuit tin filled with papers and photographs. It had been left behind in the attic nearly a century before, when my family moved out. It was mine now, a final gift from the past.

For a genealogist that was treasure enough, but some researchers have found much more. Distant relatives dying without an heir could have left a fortune, just waiting for someone to prove their bloodline.

Now Alan was going on holiday to Scotland, so he approached his relative and copied the relevant details. While he and his wife were in the vicinity, they would check out the ruins of his family's ancestral home.

The couple arrived and peered at as much as was visible to the general public. Alan pulled out his family tree and started telling his wife how he fit into the vast scheme of things. He was observed by a caretaker, who approached them. It was access all areas then, as they were taken through usually locked doors and given a tour of the whole premises.

The family connections, it seemed, had survived the centuries.

It is a sad fact of life that those who lived must also one day die. As you hunt further through your family history, those gravestones and death certificates may reveal some quite tragic stories.

They might also tell you something vital for the present day.

When you visit the doctor, your medical records will be consulted to build up a picture of your health. If it's something potentially serious, then you may be asked about your family's health history. It's one thing being able to mention the genetic conditions suffered by your parents or siblings, but what about going that one step further.

Genealogists could, if required, produce a family health history which spans generations. I could tell you what caused the death of my great-great-great grandparents and much more besides. This information might provide clues, which are the difference between life and death for my living family.

When Alex Best surveyed her family tree, certain patterns started to emerge. One in particular made her turn cold. It appeared that, over the past 200 years, a startling number of her female ancestors had died of breast cancer.

It was a condition that she knew well. Her own mother had died of it, when Alex was just a young girl. But that had felt like a tragic, isolated case. Now her family history was telling her otherwise.

At 29 years old, Alex contacted Prof Gareth Evans, from the Genesis Prevention Centre in Wythenshawe, England. He was able to tell her much more. The breast cancer gene could be traced through her bloodline all the way to two brothers, who had emigrated to Britain from Italy, in the 19th century. Since then, over thirty of their descendants had developed a malignant lump and died.

Realizing that she was in danger, Alex went to get checked out. The result was her worst nightmare. She already had breast cancer, but it had been found early enough. She had the treatment and survived.

It is a specter which continues to hang over her family. She told the Manchester Evening News that she can only hope and pray that the future brings some preventative gene therapy to help her family. After all, she has three daughters and she now has the knowledge to safeguard their future too.