Who am I?
I'm an umpty-something1 woman who has been researching my family history in Wales (mother's side) and England (father's side) with varying degrees of success since 2003. I don't claim to be an expert; I'm an amateur family historian who tries to do my research to professional standards.
After I completed my B.Sc in Physics at Imperial College London, my mother excitedly told all her friends that I was going to work for the KGB! So I've extensive experience of loitering in a trench coat and ferreting out well-hidden secrets...
Or maybe not; only the last two letters of the acronym were correct. I spent my working life in the IT department of a large nationalised utility and its privatised successors, and retired (early) in 2008 with a pot pourri of experience spanning technical, commercial, managerial, process engineering and quality roles. So it will come as no surprise to anyone who worked with me that I'm keen on structured research processes, fact-based reasoning and documenting everything thoroughly... and on using technology to best support all that. I also love ferreting through historical documents and solving genealogical puzzles, and learning new and better ways of doing those things.
Why create another personal family history website?
I wanted a place to:
- Openly share the results of my family history research with my family and with other researchers, in an easily navigable format that allows me to include everything I know, supported by sources.
- Write about my experiences doing the research, including the tools I use, the mistakes I made and the lessons I've learned and am still learning.
And this is the result.
1 There's a dating clue in the photograph.