Last updated 24th July 2007 - Click here to find out what's new!ccccccc
Welcome to Foliages!
I hope you enjoy visiting my web site as much as I have enjoyed researching all the information that it contains. There is quite a mixture of information on the site, including family trees and ancestral biographies. Please have a browse and tell me what you think.
The name I chose for the web site, Foliages, sums up my views about what genealogy should be. Whereas some genealogists are content to simply gather the names and BMD dates of their ancestors, it is important to me to try and discover as much information about my ancestors, and their families, as possible. In essence, I want to put some leaves on those, otherwise, bare and boring branches.
Some of you may read that statement and think, "...Well, we would all like to do that, but my ancestors were all agricultural labourers, I won't be able to find out much about them at all..." So far, my ancestors have all been working class people, not a Lord of the Manor in sight! (Except when the taxes were due, of course!) I had no genealogical short-cuts; no family papers, no letters or Bibles; no photographs were handed down from my father's side of the family.
However, whilst my own ancestors may been appalling record keepers, the bureaucracy of the State and the Church ensured that their lives did not go undocumented. The chances are, that the same sources exist for your family, too. Access to an astounding array of historical data has never been better, and this means that it is becoming increasingly easier for us genealogists to discover own family's unique past, if we try.
I tried to write the ancestral biographies, which appear elsewhere on this site, in a manner that would make them interesting to people other than just the members of my own family. They are meant to be an illustration of what can be achieved when we decide to try to get to know our ancestors as real people. Each biography is linked to a short "research guide" explaining the sources that I used to research that particular individual. It is hoped that you will find them of some use.
Thanks for visiting!
Amy Kitcher