So where do I start was my first question, I was born and raised in Fareham, Hampshire, as were my two younger brothers and my younger sister, I knew mum had been born in Portsmouth and that dad had been born in Ireland, the other information I had was that both my maternal grandfather had been in the Royal Navy as had my father, so the first thing to do was to contact my siblings and find out what if any paperwork and photo's were within the family. The two most important items we found were my Mother and Fathers Birth certificates and also the marriage certificate, also we found that we still had my fathers Royal naval service record, which he had when he left the Navy.

Birth, Death and Marriage certificates are the Building blocks of Genealogical research, as they give not only important dates but also father and Mothers names and locations. These are important as they can verify certain fact,s.

Little did I know when I embarked on this journey into the past, that it would consume so much of my time and lead me to so many places, finding out that family stories were not always as they seemed, and being reunited with family members that I had not seen for over 50 years were just two of the positive sides of my research.

Now after 6 years of research I have learned so much about my family and the way they lived, I have been re-united with family in England, Canada, Australia, Jersey and the  USA, I have learnt about where and how they lived,  Where they fought in two world wars, have written one book and halfway through the second, and have an extended family tree in excess of 1800 individuals, It has not been a smooth journey, there are many hours of research and many brick wall,s to overcome but I have enjoyed every second of it and will continue to do so,

within this blog I intend to give an account of my research and the resources that are availably, Locally, Nationally and internationally.

to be continued.