It is strange really, one little medical fact about my family has been common knowledge to me for many years, but it is only today that I realised just how useful it is to trace my family history.

My family (down my mothers line) are carriers of a relatively rare genetic disease known as variegate porphyria. This is a disease that is very well recorded in white South African (primarily Afrikaner) bloodlines and a full genealogy going back to the person who brought the disease to South Africa exists. That first carrier, Ariaantje Adriaanse, arrived in South Africa in 1688.

With my mothers family I have been unable to get further than her great-grandparents as records are difficult to access from abroad, and here, right in front of me for years it seems, is a solution to that problem - at least one half of her lineage has been tracked back to 1688 for me, I just need to access the data!

I am sharing this information here as I think it serves to illustrate the point that sometimes the solution to genealogical problems can a) be staring us in the face and we don't recognise it for what it is and b) can come from the most unlikely of sources.

That is quite an incredible discovery Robert, and I'm sure many of us have been 'staring at wood' for years and have been 'unable to see the trees.'

I would never have put two and two togehter I don't think... so clever old you for doing so. Do let us know how you manage to trace back to 1688 and how many generatios you find.

BTW - "Who do you think you are?" 9pm on BBC1 tomorrow night should be good... it's Boris Johnson the Mayor of London!
>Boris Johnson Programme trailer<

Last week's was good with Patsy Kensit. What a surprise her family turned out to be....

Carole wrote:

That is quite an incredible discovery Robert, and I'm sure many of us have been 'staring at wood' for years and have been 'unable to see the trees.' I would never have put two and two togehter I don't think... so clever old you for doing so. Do let us know how you manage to trace back to 1688 and how many generatios you find. BTW - "Who do you think you are?" 9pm on BBC1 tomorrow night should be good... it's Boris Johnson the Mayor of London! >Boris Johnson Programme trailer< Last week's was good with Patsy Kensit. What a surprise her family turned out to be....

Boris Johnson - isn't he descended from some albino gorillas that escaped from London Zoo in the late 1880's?

Robert wrote:

Carole wrote: That is quite an incredible discovery Robert, and I'm sure many of us have been 'staring at wood' for years and have been 'unable to see the trees.' I would never have put two and two togehter I don't think... so clever old you for doing so. Do let us know how you manage to trace back to 1688 and how many generatios you find. BTW - "Who do you think you are?" 9pm on BBC1 tomorrow night should be good... it's Boris Johnson the Mayor of London! >Boris Johnson Programme trailer< Last week's was good with Patsy Kensit. What a surprise her family turned out to be.... Boris Johnson - isn't he descended from some albino gorillas that escaped from London Zoo in the late 1880's?

Yes - that's the guy.....

Here's his latest 'Press Release Photo'