To be or not to be ? That used to be the burning question. Today, it is more a question of who am I ? Where do I come from ? What made me ME ?
It's strange that it wasn't a question I had for the first 50 years of my life. Que Sera Sera was my motto. I was adopted, I had great parents, I had a good life ..... what more could I want ?
The road map to my life probably changed as a result of the TV programme “Who do you think you are”. I had always loved detective stories and mysteries so I was fascinated to discover that it was possible, even exciting, to trace unexpected facts and stories about my ancestors. I purchased the WDYTYA software for my wife, initially thinking it would be fun to trace her tree. Things quickly developed from there and I soon began to research my parents' trees. Having been quite successful with that, I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to see if I could find out a bit about my birth parents and where my roots came from ?
At that time I considered myself to be the quintessential Englishman and the only question in my mind was whether I was a Man of Kent or Sussex or even perhaps Surrey. It was never a possibility that my research would result in finding 75% of my roots as being Scottish with a splash of Irish thrown in ! Perish the thought.
I started my journey as purely an academic exercise but, cutting a long story short, I did find my birth mother and my birth father's family, and have been welcomed into both families.
Am I a different person now ? Finding them doesn't change who I am but it does explain a lot of the .... 'what made me ME' question.
I am who I am because of my upbringing and the opportunities my parents gave me. However there are elements within my genes which have defined how I have used that firm foundation.
It's strange that it wasn't a question I had for the first 50 years of my life. Que Sera Sera was my motto. I was adopted, I had great parents, I had a good life ..... what more could I want ?
The road map to my life probably changed as a result of the TV programme “Who do you think you are”. I had always loved detective stories and mysteries so I was fascinated to discover that it was possible, even exciting, to trace unexpected facts and stories about my ancestors. I purchased the WDYTYA software for my wife, initially thinking it would be fun to trace her tree. Things quickly developed from there and I soon began to research my parents' trees. Having been quite successful with that, I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to see if I could find out a bit about my birth parents and where my roots came from ?
At that time I considered myself to be the quintessential Englishman and the only question in my mind was whether I was a Man of Kent or Sussex or even perhaps Surrey. It was never a possibility that my research would result in finding 75% of my roots as being Scottish with a splash of Irish thrown in ! Perish the thought.
I started my journey as purely an academic exercise but, cutting a long story short, I did find my birth mother and my birth father's family, and have been welcomed into both families.
Am I a different person now ? Finding them doesn't change who I am but it does explain a lot of the .... 'what made me ME' question.
I am who I am because of my upbringing and the opportunities my parents gave me. However there are elements within my genes which have defined how I have used that firm foundation.