Q & a

Q My ancestor, Charles Hayes, was born on 6 October 1700 in Harrow on the Hill to Charles Hayes and Ann Ewster. He attended University College Cambridge and, described as “one of the Gentlemen of the

Reality is far stranger than fiction, and this is certainly true of my family history. I am one of seven American children born to Hungarian physicians Clara and Julian Ambrus who grew up in Budapest

I was very interested to read Nicola Johnson’s article exploring the world of stokers in your January 2026 issue. My great grandfather, John Thomas Gray, was a stoker on the HMS Indomitable during the

What began as a simple attempt to trace my paternal grandfather online has unfolded into a web of lost marriages, mysterious deaths and unexpected headlines,” says Mike Medland. Born in 1949 in India

Q My maternal great great grandfather was called John Budd. The family story is that he was abandoned in an orphanage as a baby and was given his name there. Aged 11, he was said to have been turned o

In this age of algorithms and ‘artificial intelligence’, when the major commercial genealogical websites are all trying to persuade us that the best way to trace our family trees is to follow their hi