My floater coworker brought in a genealogy packet today just to show me. An aunt had put it together for a family reunion in 2000. It was half handwritten and half typed, and full of black and white photocopied pictures. Genealogy has come a long way.
He’s Irish, but doesn’t know much more than Southie and Dorchester. Eventually, we get to the back of the packet and he says, proudly, “And this is the island that my family came from”, pointing at a dot in Galway Bay. I asked him “Do you know the name of that island?” “I think it is in here…Inishmore.” I told him that that is probably the most famous island in Ireland and then showed him pictures from my honeymoon. He was amazed and is now thinking that a trip “home” next summer is in order.