Ancestors as Cigarette Cards

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes (you know what they can be like), I often turn to a bit of family history: I'm not sure why. It's a diverting research task: challenging but not too difficult, with no practical consequence riding on it. And they're many of them interesting people. But I've always disliked the idea of taking vicarious pride (or shame) in the achievements or follies of other people, and I can't deny there's some glory-basking going on too. There's yet another factor, though, which is the lure of completing the set. I'm not a huge collector of things in the normal way, but I've now got pictures of 8 out of the 10 children of my great-great-grandparents, and I'd dearly like the other two.

( This is my collection so far, taking them in birth order: )

Ancestors as Cigarette Cards

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes (you know what they can be like), I often turn to a bit of family history: I'm not sure why. It's a diverting research task: challenging but not too difficult, with no practical consequence riding on it. And they're many of them interesting people. But I've always disliked the idea of taking vicarious pride (or shame) in the achievements or follies of other people, and I can't deny there's some glory-basking going on too. There's yet another factor, though, which is the lure of completing the set. I'm not a huge collector of things in the normal way, but I've now got pictures of 8 out of the 10 children of my great-great-grandparents, and I'd dearly like the other two.

( This is my collection so far, taking them in birth order: )