Names On a Page

I was wondering the other day what it would be like if I'd known my ancestors as people - would I have liked them? Would they have been like me?

I don't have a time machine, so there's no way I can know for sure what these people were like - but they are far from just names on a page to me. I know things about them and the people they grew up with that they may never have known themselves. Did Mary Ann know that John was not her father? She was young when her mother married him, he always referred to her as his daughter, she had his last name - did she know? Did she know of her mother's court battles to ensure her biological father paid maintenance?

People's stories never completely disappear - they just wait for a while, a hint here, a clue there; they wait for centuries if they have to.