Strange things start to happen if you can trace your family back far enough, and if you can find a thread which is, let’s be honest… posh.

In trying to work out the family of my 6 x gt-grandmother, Elizabeth Cardinall (1741-1803), I’ve been studying the Cardinall family. I think her father was William Cardinall of Arlesford, which makes her a descendant of Charles Cardinall (?-1624) and his father, William Cardinall (1509-1568). I’ve been putting together the various strands of this family, and it means that, through Elizabeth, I’m connected to Sir Thomas Bowes, Admiral Nelson, P. G. Wodehouse, the Walpoles… shall I go on? What’s amusing about this is that because Elizabeth Cardinall is the ancestor of vast numbers of quite ordinary people who can trace themselves back to villages on the River Colne, such as Fingringhoe, Rowhedge and Wivenhoe, it means that a huge number of people are, in fact, related to some rather grand people who, if you’re a wheelwright, builder or a librarian or an accountant or a plumber or a gamekeeper, may come as a rather enormous surprise. So let’s start with….