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One of the things I think has been the greatest help to my research has been membership of family history societies, mailing lists and this forum.
After I received the information about John and Sarah Nathan living on London Road Southwark - remember that the 1881 census was the only one transcribed at this time and there was very little on this here intarwebby thing - I went to London with a coach trip organised by the local FH Society. The BMD indexes were held in St Catherine's House (that's ...

"See if you can find those darned actors" was one of the things my Dad said when he handed me the files with his research. So I did. First you must remember that this happened before there were such things as FreeBMD or Findmypast. In fact the 1881 census was still in the final stages of being checked and transferred to microfiche before being released. We did have the IGI on fiche - so nothing is easy at this time.
I started by reading everything he had and then talking to Muriel's ...

I am a mutt genealogically speaking. Though I subscribe to the belief in canine's, mutt's are sometimes the best, prettiest, and healthiest of the animal, I am not so sure about the human correlation. I am a rather proud mutt, but my family history is a varied mixture of heritage that makes me envy those who can trace their trees back 400 or more years. I can tell you with all honesty, I will never be able to do that. Nonetheless, what I have found has been astounding.

My paternal ...

Growing up in Kent in the 1960s, our visits to Wales were few and far between until the M2 was opened and we got a reliable car. Even then, the drive took 8 hours and we only went once a year in the summer. There were three things we looked forward to on those long drives: crossing the Severn Bridge as we entered Wales, our first glimpse of the mountains and our first glimpse of a pit head wheel.

Auntie Polly was the last surviving sibling of my paternal grandfather and she lived ...

Every family has a story, something that has been handed down with a little embellishment or perhaps a spot of cleaning up as the years went by. There were three things that were said at Sunday tea by my Aunty Muriel and they were... perhaps I should explain about Sunday tea should I?

I am an only child but I grew up in a large family. My Dad was one of 12 children. They were kept close by Muriel who was the eldest. She had been told by her mother to look after her brothers and sister ...