Family Trees Unlocked
Bringing your ancestors to life
About
Hello, my name is Michelle Smith, a professional genealogist and family historian. My passion for family history began when I inherited my paternal grandfather’s family history research. The ability to source information and compile a family tree online made researching easier, compared to the slow process my grandfather took in the days before the internet which involved visits to local archives, collating information by post and obtaining stories and memories from relatives. Discovering my ancestors and learning about their lives was extremely interesting and I went on to explore my maternal family line before researching family trees for friends and family. I find social history fascinating and being inquisitive, enjoy searching for lost ancestors, exploring where they lived, occupations, military service and how they died to bring their stories to life.
My Family
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My grandfather’s paternal line originates from Suffolk but the vast majority of my family tree stems from the West Country; Devon and Cornwall (paternal) and Somerset (maternal). My ancestors were agricultural labourers, servants, soldiers, sailors and shipwrights. Some emigrated to Canada and Australia or sailed with the Royal Navy to the Far East or Caribbean. Others never left the towns, villages or even houses where they were born. During the Industrial Revolution railway workers and miners appear. Men who began their Naval career on wooden sailing ships ended them on steamships. There are family members recorded as inmates in workhouses, asylums and prisons. Illegitimacy, accidental death, suicide and bigamy all feature in my family tree but it is important to put these events and circumstances into context.
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The most interesting ancestors in my tree have a story to tell. My four times great-grandfather John Holman was a Sergeant in the Royal Cornwall Militia. When he died in 1858 the local newspaper proclaimed that at 90 years old, he was “the oldest man in the borough of Bodmin”. Jane Smith, a great-aunt, married in 1873 and went on to have twelve children while Edwin Albert Chappell, a great-uncle, died aged just 31 in South Africa of typhoid while serving with the 14th Hussars during the Boer War. There are a few criminals: my three times great-grandmother Sarah Sparks spent ten days in Taunton Gaol in 1840 for stealing potatoes while my four times great-grandfather Charles Chappell was incarcerated in Ilchester gaol in 1844 for stealing a duck. James Pendennis Holman my three times great-grandfather was a turnkey (prison warden) at Bodmin Jail in the 19th century.
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Qualifications
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Genealogy: Researching your Family Tree Certificate of Achievement from the University of Strathclyde
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Accredited Diploma in Genealogy Level 3 from NCC Home Learning
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