Every Family has a story to tell……….Welcome to mine
I was recently invited by Australian Genealogist Carole McCulloch, to take part in a podcast interview, to discuss all things Genealogy related and my role as the writer of the 'Dear Paul' column for family tree magazine. Carole is an author, storyteller, family historian, teacher and now podcast host, if you want to visit her … Continue reading “Enthusiastic Amateur” Podcast
A lot of our family tree is based on numbers, we are obsessed with them, birth dates, marriage dates, death dates and census returns. Thanks to the wonders of technology, we can now crunch these numbers from our family tree software programmes. Whatever software you use, there is usually a way of representing your family … Continue reading My Family Tree in Numbers
Before the start of WW1, the British Army comprised of approximately 700,000 men of which 250,000 were regulars, 250,000 territorials and 200,000 reservists. By the end of WW1, it’s estimated that 8.7 million men and women had served in the British Army. So, the chances of you having an ancestor who served in WW1 is … Continue reading How to Research a WW1 Soldier
Let me introduce a guest blog from lifestyle blogger John Adams. History is a controversial subject. Some find it fascinating, given that it reveals so much about the past that it vital to our existence. Some prefer to live in the moment and consider history frivolous, as it is something that cannot be changed. Most … Continue reading Guidelines for Finding your Family Tree
This is the 12th in my series of blogs that recounts the wonderful lives of my 2 x Great Grandparents, so sit back pour yourself a drink and see how much I struggled to untangle the mysteries of Elizabeth Bishop and her family. Elizabeth was one of those difficult and frustrating Ancestors to research and … Continue reading Are you a Bishop or a King?
Wow! What a truly extraordinary experience that was! The largest gathering of online Genealogists for one event ever and this could even be the largest gathering for any type of online conference ever recorded. The numbers are truly amazing, with over 1 Million attendees over the 3 days from over 200 countries, what a truly … Continue reading My #RootsTechConnect Experience
This is the 11th in my series of blogs telling the life stories of my 2 x Great Grandparents and its the turn of Martha Harvey next. Martha was the sixth of seven children born to Edward Harvey and Hannah Bullen and she was born on 3rd September 1864 which was kindly recorded on her … Continue reading The Life and Times of Martha Harvey
A father's name on a birth certificate, is that a fact? The birth certificate itself is the 'evidence', anything stated on the certificate is then normally classed as a 'fact', including the birth date and the father's name. But what if that information is, in fact incorrect? How can we determine what is a fact, … Continue reading How do we differentiate between ‘Fact and Fiction’?
I love the idea of setting myself Genealogy Goals each year, realistic ones, not pie in the sky things, but real achievable targets. This helps maintain focus and prioritise what you are working on. A few years ago I completely fell of the rails and totally lost focus and I put that down to not … Continue reading My Genealogy Goals for 2021
It's that time of year again, time for my 'End of Year Report', time to see if I managed to stay on course with my Genealogy Goals, or see if I ended up being side tracked chasing 'shiny objects' and lost momentum with my research? So let's first take a look at my genealogy Goals … Continue reading My End of Year Report 2020
