That was a looooong time ago.

One of the things I love about London is how rich the history is.  Like I said last year, at home "our archaeological digs are for history that goes back 100 years. In England that's just your normal redecorating."

We went to the Tower of London today.  I'm sure my ancestors saw it as well.  In the 1800s some of my ancestors were living in Gravesend--not far away.  I don't know if they ever visited the tower although they could have, apparently ordinary people could visit then and by the end of the 1800s over a half a million people were visiting every year. 

What I just keep running into here is that I can't wrap my mind around how old the history is here.  I just can't get my mind around the 1000s.  William the Conqueror 1066-1087 first started building the tower.  We sometimes see him on charts we do for people who have tapped into their royal British lines.   I guess family history makes me realize the reality that these people lived so long ago, and printing charts has given me a good feel for how many generations is in between us and them.  The number of people who lived and died in the interim is dizzying.