It ain't where ya from... which is a good job as, turns out, the Dietzes are originally from Gainsborough!

Cousin Paul, brother Matthew, cousin Ann and me.

Over Easter, my brother Matthew came up to visit, with his wife, Marion, and their three kids - count 'em, how do they manage! - Chloe, Gregory and Barnaby. Actually, all three are lovely. See another post on our adventures together (to come...)

One night Matt and I went to meet a man called Paul and a woman called Ann. Paul and Matt had been caught by the genealogy bug that has swept the nation of late, and by coincidence they both logged on to http://www.genesreunited.com/, and both spotted that they had the same surname... Turns out, Paul and Ann are our cousins, and not 'once removed', either; they are our 'proper', descended-from-the-same-flesh-and-blood cousins. And we had never even heard of either of them.

Paul is now a geneaology genius. He has done a quite astonishing amount of research into the past of the Dietzes of yore, and so now the tale can be told. The short version of our family history (fellow Dietzes, and/or random nerds, weirdos and stalkers can click here for the full version unearthed by Paul), is this...

Apparently, a brother and sister, Frederick and Mary, from Künzelsau, a small town in near Stuttgart (pictured),

came over to England in the mid-1850s (globalisation, eh?), and settled in... Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire. Here are some pictures of the town. Now, I've never been to Gainsborough, and until last month I would have laid a sizeable bet on me taking my last breath having missed out on its pleasures, but we're going to go soon, that's for sure.)

One of Frederick's sons, George (my great-great grandfather? I think that's right) went off toward Chesterfield to seek his fortune, and that's where Dad's dad was born and where he had Dad. Meanwhile, George's brother, also called Frederick - Paul and Anns' direct descendent - headed up to this part of the world, to Stockton (where, ironically, I now teach undergraduates). That is how the Dietz family tree split, and neither my brother nor I, nor Paul nor Ann, had ever heard of the other half until we met up.

The picture at the top, then, is of the 'Great Reunion of The Two Halves of the Dietz Dynasty', taken in the backroom of the Dun Cow pub in Durham (where they serve what to my mind is the unimproveable Castle Eden beer on draught).

Paul and Ann now live in Hartlepool, just down the road - so close we can catch a direct bus from Durham - and we shall be sure to stay in touch...