Family Portraits

Are you interested in genealogy? I've traced my family tree back for generations. Unfortunately, the further back in time I go, the more frustrated I get with the information I gather; there is just so little of it! I have loads of dates: births, deaths, marriages, etc. But little which helps put flesh on the proverbial bones of my ancestors. I know they lived and died, but I wish I knew a bit more of what they did inbetween; what kind of people they were.

Occasionally, however, digging deep into the available information does allow you to unearth a diamond. I have got to know a few people who I am distantly related to over the last couple of years, and one especially, a second cousin whom I have sice met and now correspond with on a fairly regular basis.

Another distant relation I have only corresponded with over the net is a lad from Liverpool who is the descendent of my own grandmothers sister. We discussed a lot of bits and pieces and then we shared pictures, and I was presented with a picture of my Great Aunt and her husband. It was a great feeling to be able to actually 'See' someone who's few details I had already consigned to my rather dry genealogical database.

Anyway, where am I going with this? Well, the subject of my own genealogy always comes to mind when I get commissioned to do a family portrait. Such was the case yesterday when the Ferguson family joined me at my studio for a family shoot. As I spent this morning processing the Raw files, I wondered if one day - perhaps a hundred years from now - a relative of this family, hankering after some geneological enquiry, might come upon one or two of the prints I'll be asked to make from the files. Isn't that something! You'll probably think not but, consider this; of all the (over 400) reords I have of past generations of my own family. The one I feel closest too - of all those hundreds I haven't met - is my great Aunt; and only because I have her likeness to ponder.

The Ferguson family - now, and for history.