Sub-title: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca
My love of genealogy is really a love for a good story. Family lends itself to telling stories and genealogy helps reveal those that might have been lost had I not sought them out. In this story about his aunt, the author uses his considerable writing and research skills to charmingly peel back the curtain on the life of his flamboyant, daring, larger than life aunt.
Munca was the name she insisted he call her, rather than Aunt something. After Munca died, a cousin had encouraged him to search for the real story of his aunt's life. What a life it was! What fascinated me was how he used the same records that we would collect as genealogist to track her path through the world. He wove her residence, marriage, divorce and other finds into his quest to unravel the truth of the stories she had told him. Mount was the editor of the Times Literary Supplement so he knows how to engage a reader.
Another appeal of the book is that the writer is English - through and through. He writes for those who known England and it was a challenge to immerse myself in the language, locations and lifestyle of the upper class British elite of the time. I chuckled at the term "Paternal Discrepancy" that genealogist term a non-parental event or NPE, which the author claims may account for no less than 3.7% of all births.
A great read highly recommended, genealogist or not!
Quotes
"How fragile it all is, how brief anyone's hold on property, or money, or life itself."
"What you don't know can sting the heart worse than the worst thing you do know. And go on stinging, because while knowledge brings some sort of ending, not knowing never ends."
"How seductive it is, this idea that you do not need parents to make you happy, or to make the best of yourself. On the contrary, to be a heroine, it is better to be free of these nagging, fretting figures in charge of you, and to forge on through life unencumbered. Far from orphanhood/adoption being any sort of handicap, it's actually a launch-pad."
Published: 2020 Read: October 2021 Genre: Biography
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