Marriages & maps

I remember, many years ago, a potential client making a very specific request. They wanted me to research their family but they were only interested in the direct male line. ‘I don’t want to know abou

KATHERINE COBB is a member of AGRA based in Somerset REBECCA PROBERT is professor of law at the University of Exeter STEVE THOMAS is a genealogist with over 20 years’ experience PHIL TOMASELLI is a mi

This portrait (the larger image) has been copied on Ancestry trees by many people. It purports to be my 2x great-grandfather, Cain Mayer (1841–1881) who was killed in a mining explosion at Chatterley

Most of us have unfortunate brick walls in our family trees – those frustrating relations who seem to have appeared into the world as if from nowhere. Perhaps a person does not feature in the baptism

Researching Welsh roots can be a challenge, since you usually have to contend with the overlapping identities of ancestors amid the swirl of patronymic names, endless recycling of first names, and a l

Back we go to the 1830s and beyond; the dark but exciting days of no censuses, no civil registration and no guarantees of what, if anything, you might find. But the challenge of tracking down William