I have been interested in history since childhood: inspired by my father’s own interest in history and nurtured by an inspirational history teacher at senior school. I first became interested in family history when a relative asked me to trace his mother’s family. Due to tragic circumstances he had lost touch with his mother as an infant. Encouraged by my success at finding his extended maternal family I began researching my own family history, and later, for clients who have ancestry in my home county of Buckinghamshire. I have over twenty five years experience in family history research, a Masters degree in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies, and have also completed several house histories
My knowledge of Buckinghamshire is not just confined to the records available at the Buckinghamshire Archives and the several local studies departments in the county. The word of mouth knowledge and contacts, that I have accumulated in the many years I have lived in the Chilterns area have, on occasions, been invaluable additions to my research.
My own ancestry in Buckinghamshire can be traced back to the sixteenth century: namely to the Hobbs family of Hambleden who were most notably yeoman farmers and tenants at Burrow Farm, Hambleden in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. I also have ancestry in the neighbouring counties of Berkshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire so familiar with genealogy in these areas too.
Qualifications
Strathclyde University’s MSc Genealogical, Palaeographic & Heraldic Studies: an intensive, practitioner led course that dealt mainly with British genealogy and its related subject matter.
Open University Bachelor of Arts Honours degree: major subject History that included studies in family and community history in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Oxford University’s Advanced Diploma in Local History: an Honours level Undergraduate Diploma focusing on local and community history in mainly the 17th and 19th centuries.
Society Memberships
Bucks Archaeological Society
Bucks Family History Society
Bucks Record Society
Register of Qualified Genealogists
Special Interests
Nonconformity in Buckinghamshire; Life in sixteenth and seventeenth century Buckinghamshire; Seventeenth century Buckinghamshire emigrants to America; Genetic Genealogy