Obsession Poem by Mary Champion

I've been doing Fam'ly Hist'ry
and I've had my share of myst'ry -
like the ones who had no fathers
and a few who never died.
There are some - I cannot find them-
for they left no trace behind them
and God knows where they came from
cos they cannot decide.

There are Howards, Wrights and Johnsons,
those who make research a nonsense
cos there's far too many of them
and I don't know which are mine.
Would that Georges were much rarer
and not all their wives were Sarah.
Did they really need to have
that many Janes in line?

There are days when I discover
a weird name that's like no other -
those are times I start out hopeful
but it won't mean I don't fail.
For it's then there will be dozens
of their uncles, sons and cousins
who've all been christened Felix
to put me off the trail.

When I started my detections
I had hopes of roy'l connections,
or a hero who got knighted
and was held in high esteem.
But, if I can't have the jackpot,
I would settle for some crackpot
who ended with his head off
for dissing some old queen.


But there's nothing that blue-blooded,
almost all their hands were muddied
cos they're Ag Labs in a hovel,
or they're servants to some toff.
Here and there I've found a baker,
or a butcher or a Quaker.
but there is no one famous.
yet still I'm not put off.

Cos I'm hooked on my researches
in the archives and the churches,
amidst musty dusty records
that will often make me itch.
I have peered at faded pages,
surfed the World Wide Web for ages
for the point when my excitement
will rise to fever pitch.

When I find the missing granny,
whose been tucked up in some cranny,
since I started Fam'ly Hist'ry
nearly twenty years ago.
Yet another twig is budding,
and emotions will come flooding.
It's very satisfying
when trees begin to grow.

So I'll keep on digging deeper
because I'm the fam'ly's keeper,
from the blossoms and the branches
to the roots from which we stem.
I will add fthe facts about ‘em,
for they scarce exist without ‘em,
till I am hung from my branch
with D plus B and M.