History really seems to come alive when you can see how it actually unfolded generation by generation through the lives of families; when genealogy and history are blended together as part and parcel of the same vibrant subject. There's an exciting continuity that flows to present day from actual people who lived a millennium or two ago. It is a vastly different and engaging view of history when you can start with an historic person who lived 700 years ago and ask who was related to them and what did they do? What were their brothers and sisters doing at that time in history? How about aunts, uncles and cousins who were also living then? Who were their parents and what did they do? Or their parents' parents? How many different points on the planet can their ancestors be traced to? Who descended from them? What are the connections to the famous and ordinary people of today?