The topic that really gets me going is one of basic human rights. In this case, it is the right to go back to one's true origins. While wars, disease and revolutions cause devastating harm to families, communities and cultural traditions, I believe that some records do always remain of populations and their details of dispersion. For example, the U.S. Ellis Island Records are an excellent example of how roots may be traced. Nevertheless, access to these records does appear to get increasingly complicated. Many librarians and archivists do such work voluntarily and may also be under too much pressure to attend to specific and complicated requests.

Throughout history, dispersion has resulted in the obliteration of people's past, of their history and their roots. Children, as well as adults, got their names changed and grew to accept their current situation without questioning.

It feels like 'enforced amnesia'. The sorrowful situation is when individuals, often from an early age, begin to feel they do not fit in their imposed milieu. This yearning to go back to basics of one's roots can recur even after several generations. Call it 'concepts of reincarnation' or call it what one wills but my thesis is that there is a strong element of truth in this matter. Does anyone get my drift? Has it ever occurred to you that "No, I'm not a sikh, I'm a Zoroastrian!" or "No, I'm not English, I'm French" for the sake of argument.

Thus, it does bother me enormously that in the annals of history, we read that before quitting Malta, Napoleon made his last mark - had his last word. He obliged all newcomers to Malta - refugees or whatever, to destroy - yes, to burn - their documents of origin. Like that, he thought the new Nation would be born.

Nationalism, patriotism, pride in the achievements of such a Nation could become overpoweringly patronising. If the name of origin were to have been Samat from Libya or Egypt, for the sake of argument, and the adopted name, Sammut, in order to fit in with the already existing name, a curious holder of the latter version might well be bullied into oblivion in his pilgrimage to seek his roots away from his / her adopted land.

The argument is complex and wide-ranging. However, I do maintain, with humility, that there should be no embarrassment nor any bar to openly seeking that information needed - the original spelling of the name, in order to enable investigations in the archives of the alleged country of origin. It isn't just names that can nurture stress, irritation, sadness, disappointment in the pilgrim seeking the truth about himself. It could be the factor of family belief system, creed or lack of it, native tongues, and so on.

In this actual case of Malta, I am convinced that parish churches, civic lists, colonial rulers' registers must have survived and that access to original data is possible. It may be brave to say it but I regard it as quite arrogant of the Church to appear to deprive those wishing to know their root faith or ethnic group, for instance. State archives are also very unaccessible in Malta and the official list of genealogists is not only amazingly short but what there is, is quite unhelpful.

While genealogy is an ever popular topic and dedicated communities have strived to create the most wonderful archives - namely, the Archiginnasio in Bologna, Emilia Romagna and its sister archives in Palermo, I still maintain that access to the records kept in these institutions is unduly restricted to the public user. Commercial entities of some dubious credentials have also worked overtime to hijack normal, legitimate access to records through greed. They stand in the way of legitimate research holding the potential researcher to ransom for considerable money.

As tax payers and contributors to civic life in general, citizens should be a lot better enabled to research their family history without political or religious exigencies in a democratic society.

If you don't know where you come from, you don't know where you're going.

Indeed. Point taken. Nevertheless, when word of mouth narrative, across ones's family generations indicates say, that "We are German. We hail from Prussia" is neither here nor there.

Brief research on what Prussia constituted in the 17th to the 19th Century is formidable. Borders changed frequently depending on land annexation during several wars. Thus, the maps of Russia, Poland, Hungary, Germany were elastic over some two centuries.

One needs to know the precise name of the town or village of one's ancestors. Suffice it to learn that is like looking for a needle in a haystack, if a family name has had its spelling changed to fit in with one in the general population of the host country, the task becomes formidable.

The main problem is that these poor families had no documents to leave to their descendants. My grandmother, born in Malta in 1879, blonde hair, blue eyes, German and Italian speaking, only had narrative from her parents and grandparents to hand down to us. her mother died in childbirth when Granny was only 11 years old.

Another problem was that these families were prolific. My grandmother was the second of 8 surviving children who all dispersed across the world in their adulthood. The males may have taken possession of any identification papers which, in turn, would have got lost or stolen over time.

During the Napoleonic wars, Maltese people scattered themselves across the world in search of work. My great great grandfather (who asserted his German roots) was a successful medic, who gained renown, in Tunis. My own research made it possible to recover those records and many others. In turn, his father, also allegedly born in Malta, was a renowned professional who had also written a book, which I own. It is not possible today to trace their birth certificates in Malta. The difficulties presented are legion. This, even though, documents cataloguing their career in Malta under specific British Governors have now appeared on the Internet. Even that evidence has hardened the official archivists to shrug their shoulders unfeelingly.

This is my key problem. It is quite possible that there are records on the Island that throw light on their roots - foreign, perhaps, of another religion, conversion certificates, baptism certificates, whatever. Clearly, one has to know the right people in order to access these annals of history.

For all the tea in China, I have found the road totally barred at every turn. I have enough data based on official documents I have tracked down to make the search quite easy but there is no goodwill on the part of the Maltese. The major problem is a deep-seethed cynicism that makes a mockery of such requests.