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Gordon, a qualified chemist in nuclear power stations & wife Barbara, a qualified shorthand typist, have been enthusiastic family historians since 1966, before the term had been invented. We were genealogists then! It all came about when, by chance, we borrowed a book from the local library entitled “Family Tree – an Adventure in Genealogy” by Nancy Burns. It changed our life.

Our first foray into the subject was fortunately very successful. Barbara’s grandmother Eliza Lovell we knew had been born nearby to where we lived at that time, actually in Broomfield, Somerset. So when the children were at school off we went locally to Somerset Record Office. We arrived as the sole visitors that day and asked to see the parish registers of Broomfield. About three hours later we had traced the direct family line back to 1740. All was therefore simple: nothing to this genealogy business! What is more at some point during the day one of the staff said “We’re just going to have a cup of tea. Would you like one?” How times have changed.

Since then many holidays have been based around our researches. Rather than visiting theatres, stately homes or local beauty spots we have walked round graveyards, spent days in record offices and libraries and trudged round city back streets looking for addresses where our ancestors lived. The whole process simply became more intense when we both retired in 1984.

One thing we have discovered. We shall not live long enough to complete this exercise but we shall keep on trying!