CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Englandrnby Derrick TurnerrnThe Necessity forrnAncestor-Worshiprn”It is a noble faculty of our nature whichrnenables us to connect our thoughts,rnsympathies and happiness with what isrndistant in place and time; and lookingrnbefore and after, to hold communion atrnonce with our ancestors and our posterity.rnThere is a moral and philosophicalrnrespect for our ancestors, which elevatesrnthe character and improves the heart”—rnDaniel Webster.rnNow that history is becoming “herstory,”rnit becomes necessary that civilizedrnpeople actively preserve that whichrnwould otherwise perish. A nation canrnsurvive only insofar as the idea of the nationrnsurvives; and this national idea isrnmade up of many individual experiencesrnand ideals, bound together by historicalrnforces, and feeling themselves part ofrnone related, corporate entity. It follows,rntherefore, that we should endeavor especiallyrnto retain our parochial, familialrnmemories, because these constitute ourrnnational patrimony.rnIf we do not know about the historyrnof our own families, we should attemptrnto find out about them. Howeverrnunremarkable, or even ignoble, thesernhistories may be when seen in isolation,rnthey have become woven into the nationalrnbeing, like individual threadsrnworked into a tapestry, and have takenrnon a vicarious, grander life of their ownrnwhen viewed in the national context.rnResearching family history is not onlyrnfascinating in itself, but also gives a longtermrnperspective on those events of todayrnwhich can otherwise overwhelm us.rnThere is something appealing aboutrngenealogy. To research your kin’s historyrnis to research the deepest recesses ofrnyour own character. It is the most fundamentalrnof all hobbies. If your kin hadrnnot been who they were, you would notrnbe who vou are. As Hazlitt reminds us;rn”Features alone do not run in the blood;rnvices and virtues, genius and folly, arerntransmitted through the same sure butrnunseen channel.” An awareness of whornyour parents are or were, who their parentsrnwere and who your parents’ parentsrnwere—and where they lived—helps yournto connect, somehow, with history. Allrnof a sudden, you become inextricablyrnlinked with those who have gone before,rnwith those whose romances and marriagesrnmade you, by creating your parents’rnparents’ parents.rnDusty parish ledgers come to life; dryrnrecords are hand-colored and reanimated;rnlong-past, faintly fragrant summerrnevenings are relived, in some fragmentaryrnway, at least; freeze-framed scenesrnfrom your familial history are filledrnagain, momentarily, with passion. Thernfaraway becomes the close-to; the coatof-rnarms in the hallway is, suddenly,rnmore than just a decoration. Precursorsrnwalked where the white horse is cut intornthe hill, and walked beneath the line ofrntrees that bisects the deeply familiarrnhorizon. A sense of pride, in yourrnlongevity if in nothing else, fills you—rnyou realize the unique contribution thatrnyour clan has made to history—it mayrneven be that you uncover some romanticrnhistorical or noble connection. Like arnman with a metal-detector, you cannotrnbe sure what the next step will unearth.rnLike him, when he handles some longentombedrnRoman coin, you are intimatelyrnin touch with the past.rnGenealogy compels you to realizernboth how unimportant and how importantrnyou are—unimportant in terms ofrnhistory (one small organism amongrnmany, all of them with preoccupationsrnand concerns every bit as real as yours),rnimportant insofar as a duty devolves uponrnyou, not to let the line die out. Genealogyrnputs you in communion withrnyour family’s past, and in communionrnwith your country’s past. You are a linkrnin a long chain, and the chain of yourrnkin is one of many forming the patternrnof your national history and informingrnyour present national consciousness.rnThere is an intrinsic satisfaction in beingrninescapably part of both a genetic familyrnand a national family. There is a deeprnsatisfaction in the idea of your beingrntrue to your forefathers, of being true torntype-rnWhen travel writer H.V. Morton visitedrnLewes in Sussex in 1942, he statedrnthe consanguinity of genealogy thus:rn”And through it all runs the connectingrnlink of a local spirit: the feeling thatrnsheep-lanes which became lanes andrnthen grew into roads, still carry men tornthe old town on the hill, men who arernnot unlike their fathers or their grandfathers”rn(I Saw Two Englands, Methuen,rn1942). Despite the dysfunctional atomizationrnof the years since the war, despiternthe progressive disintegration of thernfamily unit, despite the increased mobilityrnof ideas and populations, a chord ofrnharmony is struck by Morton’s simplernwords, and we get a tantalizing whiff of arnsolidity and permanency that is becomingrna memory (or is an unattainablerndream).rnGenealogy enables us to gather somernof that protective shield around us, andrnto wrap ourselves in a feeling of orderrnand rootage. Not all of us, not evenrnmany of us, I suspect, want to be rollingrnstones all our lives; genealogy reminds usrnthat there was once at least a semblancernof immutability. We have visions ofrnNorman churches, full of dusty sunlightrn—of half-timbered houses—andrnovergrown graveyards—and remoternfarms—and the crowded streets of lostrncities—and we see people similar to ourselvesrnall the way through. Genealogyrnreminds us that nothing is futile, that nornact is insignificant, that some acts—rnsuch as the admission of millions of immigrantsrnfrom the Third World intornBritain—are of the utmost significance.rnWill Alice Duer Miller’s “blond,rnbowed,” blue-eyed English faces reallyrn”always be / found in the cream ofrnEnglish places / Till England herself sinkrninto the sea”?rnGenealogy reminds us that we mayrndefinitely attain to some kind of immortality.rnIn an age when many of us havernlost our religion forever, that is somernconsolation. We share something of ourrnfeatures and traits with ancestors whornmay be very distant indeed; they havernbecome immortal through their children,rnand we may through ours. Contentrnin our deep roots, and in our assured future,rnwe spread contentment around us;rnwe realize with the now-obscure but notrn40/CHRONICLESrnrnrn