I was born in York, Yorkshire, England in 1965. Raised in the Woodthorpe area of York since the age of 3, I attended the local primary school. I was a quiet child, quite studious, I loved reading and writing stories. I passed my 11+ and went on to study at Mill Mount Grammar School in York. After O’ levels I chose to attend College at Harrogate to study Art & Design. There I found a love for dressmaking and pattern cutting. This lead me to my first post-college job with Liberty of London, known for it’s beautiful fabric design, at the store based in York at the time. I was also fortunate to work in their flagship store in Regent Street, London, during the 90’s. I married my husband in 1995, and we now have an assortment of children and grandchildren.

I still enjoy reading and writing but my main obsession is Genealogy. A lot of simple research can be done online, which makes this a daily habit, usually early evenings. My love of Genealogy was born from years of trying to identify my father’s family. He was abandoned by his father at the age of 3 not long after his mother died. Years of paper trail research turned up nothing. I contacted professional genealogists, who wouldn’t take it on, I appealed to Long Lost Families, who politely declined. Then along came AncestryDNA! This was a complete game changer. I impatiently awaited my results, then struggled to make sense of it all! In time, I started to understand how to make my results work for me. My close family all did DNA tests. This helped me isolate my paternal DNA matches. Following the DNA trails, grouping 4th cousins, building quick and dirty trees using scant information from my matches trees, I honed in on one region and a few recurring surnames and, finally, I achieved my goal using Genetic Genealogy. Thanks to new found cousins agreeing to take DNA tests to confirm my research, I now knew who my grandparents really were. There was a simple explanation as to why I hadn’t been successful with regular paper research; my grandparents had run away together, leaving behind their young families. They travelled the road north, from Walsall to Lancaster, using aliases. My goal now is to learn everything there is to know about them and the 15 brothers and sisters my dad never knew. Maybe one day, someone I contact will unearth a photo of them. For now, please explore my website, where I will tell you what I know!

This is a work in progress and other biographies will continue to be added to the site. Please check back regularly!