The Ancestry Hunter

20/07/2025

I don't write much on here these days but I've just had a job that I thought was worth sharing and it's one of the reasons that I dow what I do.
I was approached by a neighbour of a client to ask if could help his mum find her long lost cousin and could his mum come and talk it through, obviously I agreed.
We met a few eeks ago and it transpired that mum, who is 88, had lost contact with her cousin due a family falling out when they were still at Primary School - so well over 70 years ago.
When mum's dad died in 1986 she found letters between her cousin and mum's dad from 1963 with and address not far from where she was then living. She and her husband hot-footed it round to the address but, over 20 years later, cousin had moved away.
Could I find her cousin? I said I would give it a go but expressed some doubt about my chances of success - the lady could have remarried or died in the intervening 60 plus years.
I was able to trace her cousin's birth (which wasn't where it was thought to be), her marriage and the birth of their son and I got copies of the marriage and son's birth certificate as they were the most recent official documents available.
Cousin's husband had a fairly rare first name these days and no middle name and cousin also had no middle name which proved enormously helpful.
I foudn what I though was cousin's husband's death in 2015 in Dorset but couldn't find any deaths that might have been the cousin unless she had remarried.
Then came across a couple of family trees on Ancestry.com which I was pretty sure were her and her family but much was blanked out as "Private" which often happens when someone is still alive and the area stacked up with Electoral Register entries I had found dating from 2014 for cousin and what could have been her son not far away.
I tried contacting the owner of the family trees to see if they could throw any light on it - one from Australia replied but couldn't help, the other English based one didn't respond.
I found what COULD have been cousin's page and tried messaging but didn't get a response - apparently people in their mid 80's don't look at Facebook that often.
I looked at her Friends and one was a local church which she recommended so I reasoned it was probably her church. Only slight problem was it burnt down last year and is being rebuilt so the email for the vicar didn't get a response but, hidden in the church website, was a contact email for the Adminstrator of the 3 churtch group.
BINGO!
The email came back very quickly confirming that I had found the cousin!
It transpires that cousin lives in an area well known to mum who has friends there.
Needless to say they are now in constant touch and looking forwarrd to meeting up shortly.
This is now the second time I've managed to research forwards in time successfully but it could so easily have been a failure.
As the saying goes, some you win....

29/05/2024

I really should post here more often....
What's been happening in the last couple of years?
Well I've been busy and here is some of what I came across.
I found a Will from 1724 in a records office that really pleased a guy in Virginia, USA as it was his several times great grandad's.
I found a newspaper report from the 1940's that proved when my client's grandad started a job (1934) and that his child was accidentally killed without any family support.
I found that my own aunts and uncles were evacuated in 1939 to within walking distance of where I was born and brought up.
I found that I was distantly related to one of my clients - quite an achievement when I was born in Derbyshire and he in Kent.
I discovered that my father and his first family were bombed out of their house in December 1940 on the same night that my grandfather was bombed out of his shoe repair shop.
I also discovered that what I thought I knew of the accident that killed my half brother in 1949 wasn't entirely inkeeping with the Cornoner's report.
I found that a man and his second wife could easily be distantly related, if she would take the DNA test it would confirm my best guess.
I also found out that my great grandfather wasn't killed in a mining accident that never happened as he had a brain tumour nd died in a lunatic asylum, poor man.

23/01/2020

Sometimes something really amazing happens that makes this odd little job even more worthwhile than it always is

I was working with a client last year trying to find his grandfather - his mum had no idea who her dad was

She had done a DNA test that threw up some DNA relatives – the closest match was a first or second cousin but all we had was a name

We weren’t of course looking for this cousin but one of her male close relatives who may have been the missing Grandad so the research was fairly intense – find the named person and then try and find her relatives

First attempts led to Scotland but that proved to be wrong

Then the trail led to Northern Ireland and it transpired that one of the brothers had been working in the area at the right time – he’s still alive age 90

Amazingly he agreed to a paternity test which proved that he was the lady’s missing father – after 66 years she finally knows who her dad is!

As I said even more worthwhile than it usually is!

20/11/2019

How’s this for a UNIQUE Christmas present for someone?

For £25 I will research and write up an Introduction to Your Family Story including a family tree!

Available for Christmas whilst I have time to write them but also available as a Voucher to use in the New Year if that works better

Check it out at

Start your Family History today for only £25 SIGN UP TODAY How The Ancestry Hunter works The only thing that is certain about Family History is that no two Family Stories will be the same – some will be longer, some shorter; others may have ancestors travelling to all corners of the world whilst ...