A simple site giving some information about Maria and Paul and our families. Up to date information is on our blog page or you can try our FaceBook and mySpace profiles.

Thank you for visiting. The link in the box above will take you to some information about our family history. We have been working on this since 2006 originally using information from other family members and more recently by looking at archives in public libraries, local authority centres and the National Archives. We have also been using the resources available on the Internet at websites like www.ancestry.co.uk, www.genesreunited.co.uk and published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints at www.familysearch.org and their "One World Tree".

So far our sucesses include finding the "lost" gravesite of Maria's great grandfather so that his daughters and grand-children could visit it once more. We have also proved that Paul's great grandfather was a Londoner and not from Lancashire after all (as suggested by family stories).

We have also traced links to cousins in Australia, the United States and South Africa. Some of these were quite famous (the "Man from Snowy River" for example).

In doing the research we have also found out things that are less positive. Some of Paul's relatives died in concentration camps in the Second World War. Other family members died in the First World War or suffered from the effects of "battle-shock".

So far, with some branches of the "tree" we have gone back to the 16th Century. This has shown up some errors in some of the records on the "One World Tree" put together by the Mormons. We are trying to sort this out at present by verifying the details of our tree person-by-person. The "One World Tree" links Paul's ancestors to many famous people, such as Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Howard Taft and Franklin Pierce. This seems to be incorrect!

Maria and Paul got married on 30th August 2008 - plans were put on hold when Paul was told his job was at risk of redundancy but then we decided to do it anyway. Paul is still job hunting though!

More information about the family can be found on the blog and on the next page

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