вЂњWe can take comfort from our history вЂ“ if Great-Uncle Fred could make it through the Western Front aged 17, you can cope with lockdown,вЂќ he says. It also feels timely to be delving into our pasts now, Cox continues there are parallels between the current uncertainty and other times when our Вfamilies have endured hardship. ItвЂ™s like doing a giant jigsaw puzzle but with real stories that have never been told.вЂќ

вЂњAnybody can do it вЂ“ you donвЂ™t need to have an academic background. вЂњTime is usually the biggest barrier to researching our past, but now we have more of it,вЂќ he says. ItвЂ™s also a great way to connect with older relatives, says Alex Cox, of family history website Findmypast. вЂњGenealogy is internet-based these days and a great excuse to sort through old photographs and documents,вЂќ she explains. This 500-year genealogy project would be no small undertaking but, according to Sue Hills, a former director of the BBC One show Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing family history is a perfect rainy-day pursuit for lockdown. Over the next 150 years, the Tyzacks become wealthy glassblowers, build the ChГўteau de Lichecourt, and then, off the back of another murder, flee to England.ДЄccording to Don Tyzack, a distant relative who has documented the family history in a book Glass, Tools and Tyzacks, everyone with my surname originates from this insalubrious bunch вЂ“ the challenge now is to trace my strand of the family back to Jehan and his father, Guillaume. The earliest Tyzack records are in eastern France on Sept 11 1490, a relation called Jehan murders a man called Martin вЂ“ and gets away with it.

As family histories go, the story of my fatherвЂ™s side, the Tyzacks, is a little mixed (my motherвЂ™s family, the Cubitts, illustrated on the cover, are more sedate).

Tracing my family tree