How goes the carcarfamilies project?

How goes the carcarfamilies project? A few days before the Carcar fiesta last year, a seminarian friend invited me to go up the convent to meet the new moderator of the team of pastors of the parish. (The seminarian had collaborated with me in coming up with the list of Carcar parish priests as well as that of Carcaranon priests — for some purpose for the fiesta itself. I don’t even know if it had pushed through and the purpose had been served.)

Anyway, properly introduced, I was asked the very question above by the monsignor. I answered him candidly the project had grounded somewhat and confided that my own resources had run out and wished aloud there was some backing so I could get on with it. The moderator monsignor said he could understand the grudging lack of support. Genealogy is very expensive, he said, saying further that he himself could not afford to have his family tree made.

I’m awfully sure the monsignor could afford any genealogy, even by debrett’s or burke’s, of his family if it interested him enough, but it was clear he did not know the nature of my genealogical project. That I was not out to reconstruct the family tree for whoever Carcar personage could afford to commission me, but rather it was about mapping the genealogy of most of the families in the town. At my own expense or with help.

Actually, when in town, I do get some invaluable support from friends who’d invite me for meals at their homes, or with whom I could hitch a ride back to the city. At least, thanks to them, my budget gets stretched. But no further.