My Family History

Like many people, I became interested in historical research whilst researching my own ancestors.  I learnt my trade on the job whilst mapping out the family trees of my father, a Welshman with roots in the foul copper smelters of Swansea, and my mother who came from a long line of agricultural labourers in deepest Essex.

Over a period of three years I reached back to discover all 8 great grandparents (gg), 16 great great grandparents (ggg), 29 gggg, 36 ggggg, and so on back to a few early ancestors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as Edmond Medlin, my great great great great great great great great great great grandfather, who married Jane in 1585 in Constantine, Cornwall.

As well as names and dates, I learnt that more interesting still were the stories behind the people.  James Quirk, a great great grandfather born in Ireland, who was repeatedly fined for being drunk & disorderly, and several generations of John Littles, blacksmiths in the tiny village of Matching Green, pillars of the community and suppliers to Lord Masham, who recorded a payment to them of £1-11-0 'for nails' in 1758.