I’m an expert family history researcher with 30 plus years of experience. I trace family trees and conduct people searches. I undertake professional family tree tracing and descending family history, research missing relatives and reunite families around the globe by way of genealogy searches. I mainly undertake British family trees which inevitably incorporates English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish family history. I had no idea that this would be the case while I was studying for a degree in English at University. There I re-discovered the novels of Charles Dickens and my interest in Victorian social history grew and lead me to Canterbury in Kent where I studied genealogy at the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (IHGS). I attended tutorials with the late Cecil Humphery – Smith O.B.E. and lectures at Morley College, London. This lead to giving lectures on behalf of the IHGS as well as becoming Managing Director of Achievements Ltd, the firm of commercial genealogists established to support the IHGS. In order to enhance my abilities to run the company I took a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MSc) at Canterbury Christ Church University to add to my first degree in English (BA).

Stephen working on a family tree chart.

In the Media

I have appeared on a number of BBC radio programmes and in TV series such as the RDF production Blood Ties and Extraordinary Ancestors for Freeform Productions, over many years I have written articles for many magazines such as Family History Monthly, Your Family Tree and Practical Family History for which I wrote a monthly column called Genealogist’s Eye View. I currently contribute regularly to Who Do You Think You Are magazine solving reader’s “brick wall” problems in the “Q & A” pages. I have just (April 2024) submitted my 77th answer to reader’s problems! I have researched thousands of families and broken down numerous “brick walls”.

Stephen with Lord Bath on the Gloria Hunniford TV Show

I was interviewed by Gloria Hunniford on her TV show. Genealogy Freelancers incorporated this into their website and it is reproduced here should you be interested in my background.

A newspaper article about some Royal family tree research I did.