Mon, May 31, 2021
Host Andrew Martin meets Daniel Smith-Ramos - a genealogist with Spanish, English, and Italian-American ancestry. Daniel explains how he got hooked on researching his family history, the challenges of researching in Spain and the Spanish language, and we'll find out about how his new venture Revista Descendientes hopes to help make it easier. Daniel chose to share the life story of his tyrannical 5x Great Grandfather Alonso Martínez (1765-1837) from Galicia, Spain, whose hypocritical and calculative ways ensures he alienates his entire family. Daniel then introduces us to his current research Brick Wall - Mary Elizabeth Vickress - a Victorian woman who seemingly outlived her entire family, only to go missing in 1886 in Birmingham, UK. Can you help find the next clue in this mystery that could bring that brick wall crashing down? Finally Andrew offers Daniel some help with his research, but he'll need to follow him through to the garage, where something awaits - a time machine.
Mon, Jun 7, 2021
Host Andrew Martin talks to UK genealogist Jane Hough about how she got hooked on researching her family tree in the 1980s, and her impressive DNA deciphering tactics that is getting her closer to solving an illegitimacy mystery. Then, Jane chooses her 5x Great Grandmother, Mary Stone, as the life story to share with us - detailing her life in Stourton, Gloucestershire as a laundry worker, through to an error of judgement that saw her being transported to Australia as a convict. Jane's Brick Wall sits right at the beginning of the Victorian era, with the origins of her 3x Great Grandfather Thomas Edwards. She is fairly sure the evidence points to his family having come from Wales, but with a mixture of theories and a name that is fairly common in Welsh records, it's over to you listeners, to see if you can help her unpick this hurdle in her research. Finally, Jane jumps at the offer of research help from Andrew, but it doesn't go completely to plan.
Mon, Jun 14, 2021
Host Andrew meets George Hall - a fairly recent convert to researching family history, who will talk about how he got into researching as a Generation Z genealogist. He'll explain what it's like to be a younger researcher, the tools he uses, and the work of The Hidden Branch, and his One-Place study. George chooses to tell the life story of Henry Hopkinson, his 4x Great Grandfather, from Birstall, West Yorkshire, UK. Henry made it somehow from the textiles industry to becoming an empire-building Butcher, whilst doing his best to raise his family with his wife Agnes. This came with plenty of challenges, often seeing Henry falling foul of planning laws, fines, and money troubles. It's off to census night 1871 in Sunderland, UK, where we hear about George's attempts to discover the origins of his 3x Great Grandfather James Conley. James seems to have origins in Ireland, but with a lack of clear evidence, a place name that doesn't seem to exist, and a mystery Catherine Collins, can you help George demolish this brick wall. George is skeptical at first about Andrew's offer of help.
Mon, Jun 21, 2021
Host Andrew Martin meets family historian, author, lecturer, and podcaster Lisa Louise Cooke (of Genealogy Gems) and discovers how she got hooked on researching her own family history as a child, her favourite record types, and what advice she wished she'd given her older self. Lisa then chooses her husband's entrepreneurial grandfather Harry Cooke as her life story. We follow him from his beginnings in mid-19th century rural Huntingdonshire, to Kent in England, before a double family tragedy sends the family off for a brand new life in Canada. Then, the hunt is on for Lisa's great grandfather Gustaf Sporowski, born in Kotten in Kreis Johannisburg, East Prussia (modern-day Poland). Finally, Andrew offers to help Lisa with her research by using something special he keeps in his garage. How could she refuse?
Mon, Jun 28, 2021
Host Andrew Martin meets genealogist Valmay Young to find out how she got into researching her far-flung family tree. He also hears about what it's like to work for a county archives, and her work with the Families In British India Society (FIBIS). Valmay chooses her 3x Gt Grandfather, Richard Sheridan Wardley, and as she explains, he sounds like a complicated man, with regular vanishing acts, trips to the USA, his attempt to publish someone else's work, and more seriously, posing as a medical doctor. In the process, Valmay also quashed a family rumor about Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Fred Beckwith is Valmay's 2x Gt Grandfather, and he's proving to be a mystery for her. Aside from his marriage to Selina Woolf at West Ham Registry Office in 1882, and his death in 1939, there seems to be no other trace of him. Where was his father Henry? Why is he so vague about addresses? Is Fred the link to Valmay's rumored Romany ancestry? Andrew tries to help Valmay with her breakthrough, but they're not alone in the garage.
Mon, Jul 5, 2021
Host Andrew Martin is joined by David Ryan, an Irish family historian who discovered his passion for genealogy after studying for his MA in Medieval History. He tells Andrew about how he made this transition, the challenges of researching family history in Ireland, and what it's like to work for Ancestry as one of their team of professional genealogists. David then chooses to tell the life story of his Great Great Grandfather John Hyland. He'll explain the hardship that John was born into at the end of the devastating famine in the early 1850s, and the events that have since shaped Ireland in the 20th century - most of which were revealed by a chance discovery of a record in The National Folklore Collection. A family rumour has always said that David's paternal and maternal 3x Great Grandmothers - Honora and Bridget Williams, were sisters. They are both born in the 1820s, and both married in the 1840s, all in the village of Ballyporeen in County Tipperary, Ireland. Were they sisters, or is it just a case of coincidence? Can you help David solve this old family story? Finally, David isn't sure whether Andrew's offer of help will come to much, but he's in for a surprise.
Mon, Jul 12, 2021
Host Andrew Martin meets Pam Smith, a family historian who went from hobbyist, to professional genealogist, and then to local historian. We'll find out how she made those moves, how she ended up co-founding the NameAndPlace research website, and her dual loves of North Yorkshire and heraldry. Pam's choice of life story is that of her Great Great Uncle, Albert 'Ginger' Goodwin. Ginger left the collieries of Yorkshire behind and headed to Canada where he advanced his political activism until he met an untimely death. Pam will tell his incredible story, and his legacy that is still very much felt in the communities he stood up for even now, more than 100 years after his death. The hunt is on for Sir Richard Etherington of Rillington, North Yorkshire, England, as Pam explains her current Brick Wall. Aside from owning land and collecting his knighthood in 1603, it's his connection to other Etheringtons in the area that is baffling Pam. Do you have a connection to a Knight? Does he connect to the others? What are his origins? Pam agrees to Andrew's offer of help, but something is about to go very wrong indeed.