Hi buddy, welcome to Dan Snow's History It. We all know that big hush families have

got illustrious histories. We have read accounts of the Kennedys, the Windsors, the Hapsburgs,

the Hoen Zollins. We've seen the Rathos, but what Emma Rothschild herself assigned

of one of those families, but more importantly a professor of history at Harbour University

set out to do was prove that every family, yours, mine, have just as much fascination

if you do a proper historical survey into their past. She chose At random, a family living

in the provincial town of Angulet in southwest France, the year was 1764, and she chose Marie

Amard, and a literate widow who lived there. She left no diaries, she left no archive, no

beautiful account of her life was written by an interested neighbour, nothing, she's just

normal. And from that moment in December 1764, Emma has traced generations of that family's

history, and it's a hell of a ride everybody. It's a reminder that your family, my family,

it's complicated, there are different outcomes, it's extraordinary. Individuals might be bound

by blood, but boy, their behaviour, their habits, their ideas, their personality, their

characteristics, pretty darn different. So this is a wonderful history, it's such a clever

idea, and it was great having Emma Rothschild on the podcast to talk about it. If you want

to go and listen to other podcasts without the ads, you can pay a very small subscription

you get a history at dot tv, you listen to all the podcasts without the ads, watch hundreds

of hours of history documentaries, you can take your fill, it's the place to be for true

history fans. But in the meantime, everyone, enjoy Professor Emma Rothschild.

Emma, thank you very much coming on the podcast. Who is this family that you have identified?

And why did you pick them of all people? It was really curiosity. I think the document

that was the point of no return was a pre-nutschal contract from 1764. They were a completely

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