Ten years ago I was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. During my treatment I received a great deal of advice, emotional support and practical assistance from MacMillan Cancer Support.

Now, as a long term cancer survivor, I am one of MacMillan's Cancer Voices. I give media interviews to promote MacMillan's work and to raise awareness of cancer and survivorship issues. I also give talks in return for donations to MacMillan. 

I already have four talks in my diary for next year: 

• 7 January 2014. 10am. Town Hall, Chipping Sodbury. Frome Valley Probus Club. Genealogy for Beginners.
• 17 January 2014. 10:30am. The Chantry, Thornbury. Thornbury U3A Family History Group. Tracing Merchant Seamen.
• 14 March 2014. 7:30pm. Masonic Hall, Chipping Sodbury. Sodbury & District Historical Society. Cutty Sark & her Crews.
  
• 10 September 2014. 7:30pm. Shire Way Community Centre, Yate. Sodbury Vale Family History Group. Of This Parish: Using Manorial and Parochial records to trace Ag Lab ancestors.

I am always happy to give talks within a reasonable travelling distance of my home in Chipping Sodbury. In addition to the subjects listed above, I offer:

• Googling for Grandma: Using Google for Family History Research
• Lost in London: Breaking down brick walls in London research
• Descendants of Cutty Sark: Tracing Living People
• Using Family Tree Maker
• How to Build a Genealogy Website
• Researching the History of your House

You can read some reviews of my talks here. If you would like me to give a talk to your group, club or society, please contact me. 

My Research Toolbox has now grown too large to fit on one page! I've divided it into separate pages for each category, with access via an index page. The screenshot above shows the page for the House History category, with links to a variety of research guides covering national and local archives.

The Toolbox contains links to websites I have found useful in my own research. It reflects my personal and professional research interests and doesn't pretend to be comprehensive. If you don't find what you're looking for there, please try Cyndi's List.

Happy researching!

Yesterday I received a nice compliment about the design of my new Sodbury Genealogy website. I'd been feeling discontented with the old monochrome theme of this website and was also very conscious that the content needed updating. So I decided to do a makeover, using the same Weebly theme I've used for  Sodbury Genealogy but with a different image header. The image I've chosen is a postcard I own, showing Coupar Angus, Perthshire in Edwardian times. I blogged about the postcard last year in Postcard from the Past. My aim was to give the two sites the feeling of "coming from the same stable", whilst being visually distinct from each other.

I've added lots of new content to the site, the main addition being a page devoted to my research into the crews of Cutty Sark. I've also added a page explaining my terms of business, covering topics such as ethics, the research agreement, copyright, payment and being prepared for research to turn up unexpected results! This last item was included following a discussion on the APG mailing list which showed that several of us have had to break bad news to clients about their ancestors. Harold Henderson of Midwest Roots reminded us that we are advised to raise this general issue with clients before starting a research project, so I've added a section to this website.

I hope you like the new layout and content. Please comment on this post to let me know what you think.

On Monday I launched my new website Sodbury Genealogy, devoted to genealogy and family history in the market town of Chipping Sodbury and the surrounding parishes in South Gloucestershire. The intention is to provide records, maps, images, links and blogposts to help those researching families in the area. 

I've lived in Chipping Sodbury since 2004 and, as a professional genealogist, I have a special interest in the history and genealogy of this delightful market town. This new website is my way of giving something back to the town, its people and my fellow genealogists.

I'll be adding content gradually over the next few months, so please call back often to see what's new. The best way to keep up to date with developments is to follow the website on Facebook and Twitter, using the links which can be found at the top of every page.