As the new year begins, I can see my finished Mawbey family history book looming over the horizon.
When I thought I had finished it some six months ago, I was really just at the beginning of the next stage of the research process.
This second stage, linking my first paternal ancestor, George Mawbey, with other people and events, has proved a most fascinating and rewarding exercise.
After finding all the surface 'gold', nuggets of information, I'm finding much more buried beneath the surface.
It's taken almost 50 years for me to appreciate having studied Archaeology as an undergraduate, and the understanding this gave me of the importance of the need to dig deeper.
I still have more digging to do, but I know where to look now and just have to keep shovelling.
As Steve Jobs, founder of Apple computers, so rightly said: 'The journey is the reward.'
When I thought I had finished it some six months ago, I was really just at the beginning of the next stage of the research process.
This second stage, linking my first paternal ancestor, George Mawbey, with other people and events, has proved a most fascinating and rewarding exercise.
After finding all the surface 'gold', nuggets of information, I'm finding much more buried beneath the surface.
It's taken almost 50 years for me to appreciate having studied Archaeology as an undergraduate, and the understanding this gave me of the importance of the need to dig deeper.
I still have more digging to do, but I know where to look now and just have to keep shovelling.
As Steve Jobs, founder of Apple computers, so rightly said: 'The journey is the reward.'
