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Description: Marcel Wissenburg, Political theorist. Research interests: green political theory, liberalism, theories of justice and Spinoza. Recent books: Imperfection & Impartiality, Green Liberalism, Sustaining Liberal Democracy.
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When my grandfather was a young boy, he liked to climb out of bed, climb halfway down the stairs and listen in on his family digging up (and sometimes making up) old stories late at night. Particularly on the rare occasions that his father 's three brothers or his grandfather were there, the conversation would turn to family history. And when I was a young boy, staying with my grandparents, he enjoyed repeating them - as old people do. Strangely enough, none of it was boring: what to say of his mother's fat
In the early 1980s, my then girlfriend got tired of me repeating these small tragedies and comedies, and gave me a book, an introduction to genealogy. I spent the next ten years in archives. Well, part of it. And of course I had the same interests any other genealogist has, however much he or she may deny it: is there a family coat of arms? The answer, so far, is no - so I invented one for my father’s 70th birthday . Is there nobility in my family? O yes, you bet: the Van den Eyndes of Holland and Zeeland,
Yet the real fun lay elsewhere: in the reconstruction of biographies. If you're already interested in your family, there is no thrill like discovering that your great-grandfather and his three brothers married on the same day, or to read the newspaper clippings. And nothing as silly as discovering that your great-great-grandmother and one of your best and oldest friends' great-great-grandfather (I won't mention any names, but he owns Tarma) were once neighbours.
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