[Phoenix]

There are lots of forums on Facebook, full of old (usually colourised) photos. And everyone bemoans the loss of that past where you could leave your front door unlocked and kids played on the street all day. All those wonderful buildings knocked down and replaced by modern tat. Landlords, of course, were rich and rapacious, even then.

My grandfather, being a policeman between the wars, got moved around Surrey. Given a choice between modern council housing (with plumbing, an inside loo and an oven) and the pretty, rambling old cottage in Thursley (with a well, a cesspit and an open range) Granny plumped for modernity every time and although I don't know the views of my grandfather, he was the one who had to bring in the water and deal with the cesspit. That cottage wasn't knocked down and today, of course, is worth millions.

A distant aunt owned a couple of cottages in Norfolk. She was in her seventies, the properties were ruinous, and gave her a pittance to live on. She would have had neither energy, nor the funds to improve them.

Family history is so much more interesting when we have some sort of back story to our ancestors, but how do we prevent our own prejudices colouring it?