Q & a

ANTHONY ADOLPH is a professional genealogist and the author of 11 books KATHERINE COBB is a member of AGRA based in Somerset NICOLA MORRIS is a genealogist based in Dublin (timeline.ie) JAYNE SHRIMPTO

One of the major reasons people take a DNA test is to find a ‘missing’ ancestor. It may be that they have no knowledge of their family due to adoption or were brought up by a single parent with no inf

QMargaret Woodhall (née Smithson), born c1827 Liverpool (according to the 1851 census), was the sister of my great grandfather, James Murray Smithson, born c1835 in Edinburgh. Their father was William

There’s nothing I love more than a madcap gallop down the decades, seeing just how far I can go on one ancestor’s line before I have to take a tug on the reins. So with the Tonge family still largely

As a professional genealogist I’m sometimes asked to carry out research into a particular individual – to, in effect, compile a biography. These requests most frequently come from one of my oldest and

The first series of WDYTYA? aired in 2004, and I started working on the programme two years later. My first episodes were broadcast in 2007 and featured rower Matthew Pinsent and actor John Hurt, and