The History of the Brand Family

My father was singularly uninterested in his ancestry. Not just disinterested, uninterested to the point that you could see him switch off when you tried to get him to talk about it. He had his reasons, and to him they were totally valid, so we let it be. Occasionally (and always out of the blue) he would tell something of his past, but he never mentioned his parent's background.

Luckily for those of us who are interested we have my cousin Linda who is Officer in Charge: Family History. She has chased the Brands back to the 17th century, and my paternal grandmother's family tree back to the 16th century. Which is remarkable because it's all in German. This is how Susan and I had the knowledge to be able visit the places we did in Germany.

The house in which my great grandfather was born, Fritzlar.

On the 25th of August Linda will be giving a talk at the Fritzlar Local History Museum about tracing her German roots. If you're in the area, I'm sure she'll have a couple of copies of the talk in english.