My late father first suggested the idea that he wanted to trace his family sometime in the early to mid 1990s. I was `between jobs` at the time, and felt that maybe it would be a welcome distraction from the soul destroying search for work; unemployment under the Tories was near to 3500000 officially, and in reality many more!

I had been told that the best place to start was at the local library, so I found that my nearest library was in a place called New Mills, Derbyshire, near to where I lived in Disley.

What I found there was the beginning of a long and tortuous journey to unearth those elusive ancestors. I did have a stoke on amazing luck. The lady in charge mentioned that their library was one of only a very few that had a complete set of the Latter Day Saints (known popularly in the UK as Mormons) microfiche records of Births, Marriages and Deaths, or BMDs as they are known today.

I had to make an appointment to view the records, and make a small donation.

I took a small notebook. What I found were records dating back as far as 1558 in my surname. Page after page of them! Over a period of a couple of weeks, I filled my notebook.

But now what? I had all these names and dates, but they meant nothing to me at all! I showed my father, and he highlighted the ones that he recognized, so that was a start. We decided to go to the County Records Offices to search the records further. The problem was that our family spanned across three counties at that time, so we would need to go to three separate Records Offices!

We went to Matlock, Derbyshire which is where the records for Derbyshire were kept. Chester was where the Cheshire records were kept, and luckily, the Lancashire ones that applied, could be found at Manchester. We realized after the first visit to Matlock and Chester, what a daunting task we had set ourselves. We had to literally ask for every massive ledger for each record, and we had to make appointments each time we wanted to view anything.

Fate stepped in, and totally out of the blue, I was offered, and took a job.

At a stroke, our search ground to a halt, and though I occasionally looked at the little notebook with scribbled notes everywhere, nothing more really was done.

My father died in 2000 without ever seeing his family tree.

Fast forward to November 2007. I had been working as a self employed courier for a few years, and though it involved long hours and massive mileages, it paid well enough. However, that was all about to change dramatically.

Over the weekend of November 4-5th, I had what I thought at first was a stroke. I awoke in the night, with my son standing over me, asking if I was alright. Every time I tried to get up, I fell over again. I had fallen out of bed, and hit my head on the dressing table as I fell, and cut my eye and head open. I went to the doctors on the Monday; had tests that day at Hospital, and finished up at home without any firm conclusions by the medical staff. It has subsequently been decided that I may have very brief seizures, a matter of seconds only at a time, but enough to prevent me from driving again.

So, here I was, likely to be permanently `signed off` sick. What would I do?

After the initial shock, I decided to tidy up the house, and it was then that I found the notebook. It was fascinating reading all those scribbled note, and poignant seeing my father`s writing next to some of the names. In that instant, I decided to resurrect `The Search`!

One massive change had taken place since those days back in the mid 1990s; the internet! I was already quite adept at using the internet for just about everything in my life, so why not this. What I found was extraordinary. All those elusive records could be found at the click of a mouse; Census Lists; Parish Records; even other people`s searches and partial family trees!

Over a `demented` period of 3 days, I found every record dating back 5 generations. All the names, dates of birth, dates of marriage, dates of death. All the places where the relevant events took place. I actually had records traceable back to 1558, incredibly, that first entry on the Mormon microfiche all those years ago! Ironically, his name was Christopher Arnfield as well!

I completed a family tree software package and produced my tree. I sent it by email to a UK based family tree specialist, and for a modest fee received a beautifully framed tree to show off. What happened next is amazing!

I took the framed tree to my local pub, where I had arranged to meet my daughter to show her my efforts. Everybody wanted to know what it was. Where did I get it from? Who did it for me? The interest was unbelievable. Before I knew what was happening, I was inundated with requests to `do one for me`!

In an effort to put people off, I made out that it involved too much work and time, and that I could not devote the time and effort that I had  spent on my own project. That having failed, I made a statement right off the top of my head. I would want at least £250 to work all those hours(!) for somebody else`s search.

Guess what? Yep…you guessed. I still had a list as long as your arm. Surely, I thought, nobody would pay me that sort of money to just compile a family tree? Well they did, and I now spend about a week a month doing searches for other people.

This is such a rewarding experience, that I have put together an e-book which I shall be releasing shortly explaining exactly how to produce a 5 generation family tree for virtually no cost. Most records are freely available if you know where to look, and I know them all! Then, when you have completed your research, I have the name and number of a little known company who specialize in producing custom made family trees that will knock your friend`s socks off.

I have seen a similar book on offer at £97.00, which I feel is extortionate!

I hope to have this finalized before the end of April, so keep coming back and checking whether it has been released.

Some pregnant women find themselves in the peculiar situation of not being sure of whom the father of the child in their womb is. Such situations can be very tricky and tension-creating, and of course, they are depriving the child who is to be born of the fundamental right of knowing who her/his father is.

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Although birth records can provide a wealth of information in your search for your history, this sensitive information is protected because it is the key to someone’s identity.

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The study of human beings is an interesting one, especially when they are the particular human beings from whom the student has derived his existence, his character, his likes and dislikes, and those elements which differentiate him from every other human being and constitute him an entity with individuality.

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Learn about the different types of family trees, and the methods for creating them.

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Genealogy is a hobby that is becoming more popular.

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Death records can provide a good deal of information in Genealogy, as can documents of birth and marriage.

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Learn all about genealogy, how it has evolved, and what tools are available to help families in their research.

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Vital records are a very important part of genealogical research.

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