About me

Please note: this blog is no longer being updated. Please visit my website for up to date information http://cflgenealogy.com/

I am a professional genealogist and family historian with 25 years experience of research. I started in the days before the Internet, online indexes and digitised records trawling through heavy binders at St Catherine’s House and microfiche at the old Public Record Office in Chancery Lane. I had to research the hard way but it could still be enjoyable!, and I gained a thorough grounding in Family Tree Research. These days I incorporate these skills in archival and internet research. What started as a hobby, researching paper records and microfiche has gradually developed, with life experience and training, into a modest livelihood. 

I am based in Birmingham with easy access to the archives of the West Midlands as well as London including the National Archives, London Metropolitan Archives and British Museum. Across the West Midlands, I regularly visit the archives of Birmingham plus the shires of Worcester, Warwick and Stafford.

I undertake general family history research on behalf of private clients and have developed particular expertise in some specialist areas including the Victorians, ‘The Poor’ and their healthcare (including Workhouses and Public Asylums), World War One, Philanthropy including Voluntary Organisations, the Royal Navy and London’s Metropolitan Police. I am assisting The National Archives with their ambitious First World War RN crew list project.

Genealogy still remains a hobby and I have researched my own family tree back to the 17^th Century but with some verification still to be done for the earlier ancestors!

I hold memberships of the Society of Genealogists and the Police History Society. I am involved with the local family history societies for Birmingham and the Midlands plus London, Westminster and Middlesex.

I trained in academic masters-level research as part of a Postgraduate Diploma at London South Bank University and have learned a lot from Pharos Tutors.