My mistress seems obsessed by her family tree. She seems to spend every spare hour on it and gets very excited about the smallest of discoveries. I don\u2019t think I would shout about finding a relative who ended their days in the workhouse, although to be fair that was my master\u2019s relative. There are the ones that left Ireland to get away from the potato famine and the ones who didn\u2019t move very far for several generations. She is even putting together a map showing where they were all born. It is safe to say that my master is from London and my mistress is a bit confused! I want her to do a map of my family. It covers a much wider distance than either of theirs do although I guess it would get too complicated with some of the dogs appearing in several places. She has been explaining to James and Helen how children used to go into service when they were old enough and started work at fourteen or fifteen years of age. I really don\u2019t think they fancied that now. Although they think school is bad enough I don\u2019t think they think it is as bad as having to work long hours as a servant or a labourer. Disappointingly, my mistress doesn\u2019t seem to have found any of their relatives that were in a position to employ servants, so her dreams of being related to \u2018well to do\u2019, wealthy or important people are rapidly fading away. Other than \u2018stud\u2019 dogs I don\u2019t think I have a very exciting ancestry either. I don\u2019t think any of my ancestors were involved in great rescues. They may have looked after some cattle or pulled the odd cart or two but I don\u2019t think they have gone any further than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"