William Robson was born in Farnborough, Surrey in 1858, his father was a Colour Sargent with the 86th Regiment, originally from Durham....

Anyone who ever heard my mother in law Betty Herd talk about her childhood will have heard how much she disliked her grandmother,...

This was written for my husband and his family. William Phillip was Alexander Brown Herd’s grandfather. Alexander’s parents were called...

I received my certificate today from the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, I have completed all 24 lectures and 70+...

This week I was approached by a man who had been struggling for many years to find out information about his grandfather, James McLeod....

A History of Stebbings, Back Lane, Washbrook Also including Chelmesis and Cherry Orchard Written by Sheila Herd in April 2024 as an...

I came across the extraordinary story of James Ramsey whilst researching a family history, the brief had been to find out how the family...

During the course of a recent customer’s family history research, I was transported from sleepy Suffolk to industrial Birmingham’s Gun...

For an assignment as part of my studies with Institute of Heraldic and Genalogical Studies I decided to look closely at the case of...

Recently my Mum got me to finish researching my grandmother’s side of the family, which I had started and never quite finished. It was a...

I received this lovely testimonial: I have been amazed at the astonishing information and revelations about both my paternal and maternal...

I sat my Intermediate exam with IHGS (Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies) a week ago, rather than travel to Canterbury I was...

Walter Parker was born in the poor house in Tattingstone, Suffolk on 21st June 1845 and baptised there on 29th June. His mother was Eliza...

Emily Jane was the eldest child of Laban and Charlotte Southgate, born 3rd August 1871 in Barking, Suffolk where Laban was farming 57...

John Johnson 1779 ~ 1831 John Johnson (my Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather) was born around 1779 in Leicestershire, unfortunately for...

Whilst researching the last family tree, I came across the Johnson family of Coggeshall, Essex, and Tambour Lace making. Thomas and Ann...

The adjourned inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of Harriet E Bullock, daughter of Samuel Bullock, farm bailiff, was held...

I recently had to write an essay about the apprenticeship, career and associations of an ancestor. Not an “ancestor” as such but I...

For Remembrance Day this year I am sharing a piece written by a friend Maggie Anderson, all about Hiram Ashford Southgate, DCM who I...

Henry and Eliza married in 1874 in Suffolk, Henry was 25 and his bride was 20, both were from large farm labouring families in rural...

This is the shocking true story of Joshua Bowers and his two wives and third partner in a quiet village in Suffolk in the Victorian era....

After doing family history research for my own pleasure for 30 odd years, after being made redundant from a job I'd loved in 2018 and...

Back in December I wrote about great great grandmother Jane Burch who lived in Stowupland, Suffolk and had nine illegitimate children,...

Sometimes you happen upon someone who you get glimpses of, but you can’t get the whole picture, like a shadow or someone you spy out of...

Following on from the last story about Abraham Bacon who was convicted of theft and sent to Australia, I have turned my attention to one...

I found Abraham Bacon in a friends family tree, and his life, shocked me, although it shouldn’t have done as I did know that punishment...

Every so ofton when you research family trees you stumble on something or someone quite extraordinary, I’ve been researching a family...

This photo is of Jane Burch, my great-great-grandmother, she was born in Mendlesham in 1832, was single all her life, but had 9...

This post is about two of Jane Burch’s nine illegitimate children. Henniker Hipperson Burch was her 5th child and Selina Burch was her...

John Burch was Jane’s 1st and oldest of her nine illegitimate children and is my great great grandfather. He was born in Mendlesham,...

Harry Burch was Jane Burch’s second child, and I just have a feeling he might have been a bit of a bad boy. He was born in Mendlesham in...

Much of family history research is about looking for the clues, and Mary Ann left us a clue about her paternity, and maybe of all Jane's...

Eliza Turner was my husband Peter’s great great grandmother, and she was born in Ipswich in the summer of 1837, the oldest of four...

These are some pictures from a couple of research projects undertaken, and some from my own family history album, using archival standard...

With it being Remembrance weekend, I decided to write about an unsung hero of WW1, my husband’s grandfather, Alexander Herd. Alexander...