Uncommon People

I hoped you like last week’s post about rescue dogs. Most of the last week has been taken up with the Ryedale Dog Rescue pop-up  shop. And we’re doing really well: over £2000.00 taken in three days. Napoleon said that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers: if we are it’s a great way to meet people. I’ve spent quite a few hours talking to all sorts of people in the shop. I don’t know if it’s because we’re a charity shop, but customers seem to open up about themselves with a gentle bit of encouragement.

What strikes me all the time is that all of them, no matter how ‘ordinary’ their lives might seem on the outside, has a unique story to tell. Many of these go untold, which is a shame. In 20, 30 or 50 years time, these people will be gone, and their memories and stories with them.

That’s why I’m determined to make sure our family’s history gets recorded. My sister and I want to leave some record behind of all the people that made us what we are. As far as I can see, we come from a muxture of miners, cotton weavers, railway workers and so on. Ordinary people that don’t normally leave much of a legacy behind. Hopefully we can change that in some small way.

I suppose you could say our ancesters were just common people, but I don’t think they were. I hope my family turn out to be as uncommon as all the unique, fascinating and intriguing customers I’ve met in the shop this week.

I think it’s going to be a fascinating trip into the past, part archival research, part historical study and part imaginitive reconstruction of people’s lives.

I’ve made a start on sketching out who our ancestors were, back to about 1800 so far, but there’s a long way to go before a clear picture emerges about our family. I’ll keep you posted here.

The rest of this week’s going to be busy with shop business, so I won’t be writing a Friday post this week, but I’ll be back next week with some pictures.

Regards

Dave