Over a lifetime, we wear many ‘hats’, sometimes piled precariously on top of each other like the animals in The Musicians of Bremen. My hats, in no particular order, are daughter, pupil, wife, mother, teacher, potter, historian, genealogist, writer, and sometime poet. I suspect there’s a jester’s cap in there somewhere too. And maybe a tragedy queen’s tiara.
There’s no reason to think our ancestors were any different. Their options may have been fewer, but the roles they played would have been as diverse and taxing as any we encounter. I’ve often heard folk say once we go back a few generations, we might find names, dates and places, but we can’t understand the multi-faceted human beings who unwittingly clubbed together to make us.
I disagree. If we put on…
