When I started thinking about how I would explain this project to family and people outside of my immediate daily contact, I came to the conclusion that I have always been interested in "why."

Why do we react in certain ways?

Why is it that certain traits are passed on from one generation to another, why if we really understand the past do we have to keep reinventing the wheel?

"Do something about it!" was the first conclusion I reached when considering this puzzlement.

I then started with the idea of building the Pope family tree and through this became riveted by a story that spans from the 16th century to today.

My ancestors who up until now were figures I presumed just existed, started to take on real personalities and my curiosity burgeoned even more.

Realising some of these ancestors were in fact still alive and had direct knowledge of the early 20th century inspired me to undertake travel to meet them. These meetings in New Zealand and around the world have produced a wealth of contacts and launch points for my research.

My early belief that families pass on unique connections was confirmed.

I witnessed first hand similar mannerisms noted as peculiar to one cousin in New Zealand appearing in another cousin in Britain or Australia.

These people had never met or known of each other's existence.

I had always believed the Pope's were and are a thoroughly enterprising lot, probably more by intuition than fact. But then I discovered Richard and John Pope and their inextricable links to the British Coal Mining Industry in the mid 1800s.

These two men were leaders of the British Coal Mining Industry and because of this position were responsible for the development of mining techniques and transportation networks.

My quest to find out more about my family has led me to the Internet and the launch of this project. The net is the first opportunity afforded the human race to collect, retrieve and exchange information on such a global scale.

If we can harness this power to better understand ourselves universally, as families and individuals then doubts in our ability to resolve conflict, starvation and disease will I believe disappear.