ROOTS - Family Trees (Paleologo)

FAMILY TREES

Giorgio Quntini Paleologo, like many of us interested in genealogy, drew family trees. It is the easiest and clearest way to indicate links in the past, and once one is used to the conventions and methodology they are an aid to any historian. Even novel readers sometimes need to reconstruct family trees in order to understand complicated plots.

Giorgio, who never leaned to use a computer, did a lot of cutting and pasting. Close friends knew better than to lend him books which might be returned lacking some family trees or illustrations, victims of the Quintini knife. Unfortunately for us he drew up no family trees either of his mother or of his father's paternal line. His interest was almost exclusively for the ancestors of his paternal grandmother, Ida Oriundi (Paleologo).

This photograph is of some of the trees which he created and which are extant. The large one in the middle was an unexpected gift to the present writer one evening at supper, because he had included a link to a joint ancestor. What one would like to have is a photograph of the very large family tree which was framed and hung in Giorgio's flat in Ovada. It is believed to have been deposited with the local city library around the time of his death. It is not known whether they still have it.

Giorgio added various trees to books (right)