Unearth the Past: A family history & genealogy podcast

S2: Ep 2: Journey into Your Past with Genealogy Jude: DNA Technology, Unseen Records and Lost Family Tales

November 29, 2023 Dr Michala Hulme Season 2 Episode 2
S2: Ep 2: Journey into Your Past with Genealogy Jude: DNA Technology, Unseen Records and Lost Family Tales
Unearth the Past: A family history & genealogy podcast
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Unearth the Past: A family history & genealogy podcast
S2: Ep 2: Journey into Your Past with Genealogy Jude: DNA Technology, Unseen Records and Lost Family Tales
Nov 29, 2023 Season 2 Episode 2
Dr Michala Hulme

Unearth the secrets of your past as we invite you to join our riveting conversation with Genealogy Jude, a passionate family history detective. Michala and Jude take you on a journey into the world of genealogy, enveloped in Jude's captivating tales of exploring old graveyards and discovering hidden records. We throw light on the revolutionary changes technology has brought to genealogy research, but don't forget to remind you of the irreplaceable value of stepping into archives and unravelling the mysteries hidden within.

Get ready to delve into some mesmerising stories, like the tale of a great-great-grandfather who lost his arm in a railway accident and the exciting implications of AI's impact on genealogy. As we navigate through the intriguing paths of our past, we highlight the importance of employing creativity and using rich sources of local and social history. Rest assured, every step of your genealogy journey will be riddled with fascinating discoveries waiting to be made.

Hold your breath as we dive into the deep sea of DNA technology and its revolutionary impact on genealogy research. From discovering unknown relatives to uncovering family secrets, DNA technology promises an exciting voyage of self-discovery. Sharing our favourite genealogical records, we discuss how these glimpses into the past offer invaluable insights into our ancestors' lives. Are you ready to embark on this thrilling journey into your family's past?

Michala's website: https://michalahulme.com/
Genealogy Jude's website: https://genealogyjude.com/

Support the Show.

Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Unearth the secrets of your past as we invite you to join our riveting conversation with Genealogy Jude, a passionate family history detective. Michala and Jude take you on a journey into the world of genealogy, enveloped in Jude's captivating tales of exploring old graveyards and discovering hidden records. We throw light on the revolutionary changes technology has brought to genealogy research, but don't forget to remind you of the irreplaceable value of stepping into archives and unravelling the mysteries hidden within.

Get ready to delve into some mesmerising stories, like the tale of a great-great-grandfather who lost his arm in a railway accident and the exciting implications of AI's impact on genealogy. As we navigate through the intriguing paths of our past, we highlight the importance of employing creativity and using rich sources of local and social history. Rest assured, every step of your genealogy journey will be riddled with fascinating discoveries waiting to be made.

Hold your breath as we dive into the deep sea of DNA technology and its revolutionary impact on genealogy research. From discovering unknown relatives to uncovering family secrets, DNA technology promises an exciting voyage of self-discovery. Sharing our favourite genealogical records, we discuss how these glimpses into the past offer invaluable insights into our ancestors' lives. Are you ready to embark on this thrilling journey into your family's past?

Michala's website: https://michalahulme.com/
Genealogy Jude's website: https://genealogyjude.com/

Support the Show.

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome back to another, the Past, a family history and genealogy podcast brought to you by me, dr McKayla Hume. So how are you all? Have you had a good week? Did you enjoy last week's podcast? I hope you did. This is series two now or season two. I'm not quite sure what you're called. I think if you're in America you call it season two, but as soon as we are not, it is series two, episode two. I hope you've had a good week researching. How's it gone? Let me know. Have you had any DNA cousin matches that you are surprised about? Have you had any DNA cousin matches that you really didn't want? Drop me a line and let me know. So this week I would like to introduce you to somebody who I've been following for quite a while and I've read several of her blogs because they're absolutely amazing. She is a brilliant genealogist. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the podcast. Genealogy, jude. Let's go right back to the beginning then. So how did you get into genealogy? How?

Speaker 1:

did you become genealogy Jude.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm one of those people that was absolutely in love with history from an early age. I lived in an old house, elizabethan farmhouse so my imagination was always like, you know, maybe I'll find something behind the ball or under a floorboard and I think I'm the youngest of four, so my parents were quite a lot older. My eldest brother was nearly 20 years older than me, so I had this sort of I was surrounded by a lot of older people. My cousins were older. I called them Uncle and Aunt, but I had, I think I had this connection with the past, like my parents were both, you know, wartime children.

Speaker 2:

My mum was evacuated, so although I'm not that old, I sort of, you know it didn't seem as far away. You know, my grandparents were, you know, victorians and I know I just I just loved history and I thought that family history is the way to sort of personalize history through looking, you know, at the records and finding more about where I came from or where my family was from. And you know, you have that sort of context, I guess, with the, you know, historical background, but knowing exactly where your family fits in.

Speaker 1:

So where did you start then? So obviously you had that sort of passion, like you said, through your parents, who live in an old house and be probably inquisitive. I call it nosey, right, Because I'm really nosey. If you have ever rang my mobile, you'll know that it's the murder she wrote theme song because I think I'm some sort of detective. So you had this sort of this inquisitive knowledge, right. So where did you start? Did you start by asking your parents questions or did you you know, where was that initial start for you?

Speaker 2:

Well, luckily my eldest brother, who I said you know was nearly 20 years older than me, he took pity on me and took me around the local graveyard.

Speaker 1:

I love him. He sounds like Mike and Mike. This is my graveyard.

Speaker 2:

And my family they. They came from a sort of small village where every other grave seemed to have their name on it. It's actually quite a famous graveyard because Charles Dickens used to live close by and he used to go for walks and in. Now, what is it with Pip in the graveyard of Madjwick? It's based in a particular church in Cooley in Kent, so my ancestors are all pop up there, so that was lovely. I think graveyards are fascinating. There's something very tangible about seeing you know the last sort of resting place of your family. It's sort of you know connection.

Speaker 1:

Honestly, you are talking to the right person. So I did my PhD on death. I mean, who even does that? Yeah, I did my PhD on death. So I spent a good six years in in. I think I spent more time in in in graveyards than I actually did, you know, in an archive. I love them and I think for me it was like when I was younger, me and my mum used to walk through them. I used to be really sort of intrigued at you know who, who was in those graves and how old people were when they died. I've always had a passion, I think, for, for cemeteries and graveyards, and I think, as well, it's like what you've said. For me, it's that full circle, isn't it? It's like we're all. We always want to know where somebody was born and we always want to start with a birth certificate and in order to take it full circle, you know, I think we want to know where people died.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it was from looking at my great grandfather's grave that you know I had his age date of death, and then it was the case of getting his birth certificate, which in those days was a trip up to St Catherine's house so I was probably about 14 years old at the time and, you know, went up on the train and saw these huge volumes of books. So, although obviously research has changed so much, with so many records being online, that there was something rather exciting about going on this you know big journey and sort of seeing his name in this old book and then applying for the certificate and having to wait as well. You know you'd have to wait two weeks or so before it came to find out. You know his birth date and where he was born and what his parents' names were and go from there, I remember those days.

Speaker 1:

Well, it has changed, hasn't it so much now, so many records online. I think this new generation of genealogists that are coming through are fortunate in a way that they can get a lot of information from their office, but they also miss out, because I, once you get into an archive and you really understand and a catalogue and you know how to do keyword searches, you can find some amazing records, can't you, that are just not online.

Speaker 2:

Exactly and you can actually maybe even touch the original book if you're lucky and have that sort of tactile sort of emotional response to the record. And I think it makes you understand the record better, because often you have to sort of leaf through and see the other entries as well. So you get an impression of what type of area a plate swore or you know what was usual, what is not unusual, and sometimes of course you miss things. I know I was missing a burial of an ancestor and I was like sure they were living in a particular parish and I thought I can't understand why I can't find it. And I tried all sorts of name variants in the search engine online but it wasn't until I actually browsed through the record. This was just online, it wasn't the actual record but it was the digitized version that you know.

Speaker 2:

I found the entry I was seeking and it had been crossed out. It was like at the bottom of a page crossed out, so it hadn't actually made the index. But until you actually go and look at the record you know page by page. Sometimes you can miss out a lot or even with census returns you can find out about the neighbours and perhaps other family members that were living close by. But if you just zoom in just on the entry you're seeking, you can sometimes miss out on all that sort of extra rich information.

Speaker 1:

Well, I was still going to the archives fairly recently for electoral registers, because a lot of the electoral registers where I lived were not online. So you know, if you're trying to find somebody in the present or closer to the present than World War II, you know electoral registers are a great resource, aren't they? So I was going in. But many of you may have seen it. By the way, a few weeks ago, two or three weeks ago, I did a live with FIMA past. So I live up in Manchester and they've just released 25 million new electoral registers that are now online.

Speaker 1:

So if you are in the greater Manchester area, if you've missed that live, I'm sure that you can probably still find it if you go on FIMA past Facebook account. But if you are looking at electoral registers, loads of them are now online, which is great. So you have this passion, you've found this headstone, which has given you some information. This is the question that I think a lot of genealogists get asked. So how far back then were you able to go, or how far back have you gone?

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, I guess I've got some family lines that go back to the 1600s. Wow, wow. I think the more you do research, perhaps the less you're bothered about how far you go back or interested you are in learning about the people along the way Cool. So I guess it's a sort of you know, you think it's quite cool. Maybe it's not that cool, but you know you're meeting people and they ask you that question and you have like a bit of a boast. Oh well, actually, yes, I'm back to such a great and perhaps a fellow genealogist and you could have that. You know rivalry as to who goes back the furthest, but at the end of the day, you know names and dates are you know of?

Speaker 2:

their views, but I really want to know more about the actual people.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, I think that and you never run out of material you've got so many lines to look at. A blog that I'm writing about at the moment is on an 18th century woman that I found in my ancestry, and I do think that women often don't get that much attention. You know you see them come into your main family that you're researching and you often just really ignore them, you don't pursue them much further. And this lady, she was in London. So you think, oh, london, that's terrible. You know you're never going to get anywhere. But actually, because I found baptism of a child that was registered with Dr Williams library, which was, you know, amazing, and there's also some guild records, you know an apprenticeship records, and I found out where her father came from, and he came from Worcestershire and came to London in the early 1700s. So I find that really fascinating to uncover that trail of perhaps an ancestor that maybe I wouldn't bother too much with, you know, too distant, but actually there's a lot of really interesting information that you can find out.

Speaker 1:

Do you think a lot of women probably slipped through the net in terms of interest in our family trees because of a problem with records? So we know, for example, in the 19th century, that women's occupations were under recorded because a lot of women who potentially maybe did work didn't put that on the census. You know if they worked in the family business, for example, they're just, you know, home duties or looking after the children. So we know that occupations were under recorded. So do you think that's part of the problem, dude, with looking at our female ancestors?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I really believe that a lot of women are unsung heroes, really, partly when you look at how many children so many of them had I have two kids and you think, well, how on earth did you manage with ten One after the other, let alone the financial contribution that they made to the family income and what it must have been like to be widowed and to just be a recipient of charity relief or be a child woman or a law and dress. And I think I'm also quite fascinated by the women that found themselves single mothers who had illegitimate children, and how they coat. There was a lady that I was researching who had twins in London in the 1860s and interestingly she puts the father's name on the birth certificate even though he didn't accompany her. So this is just before 1875, where the father would have to be present in order to have his name recorded. So I'm thinking what sort of woman is that? She's a woman who really wants this man to take responsibility. I later found out he was a butler, she was a household servant, so perhaps they met at work, but he was unfortunately married and his wife lived away, because at those times if you were a servant and married, you generally couldn't have your wife with you, so that must have put a quite big strain on relationships Anyway. So she has twins. Unfortunately one of them dies after a few months.

Speaker 2:

So again you feel what was it like to lose a baby and to know that perhaps there was nothing you could do to keep that child. Her mother had died, so I guess that wouldn't be an option for her family to take care of the baby. And there's a very poignant record of the child's baptism in the parish where he was later living in the senses as a nurse child. So I'm thinking, did she look at the newspapers and find an advert for a family that would take her baby? And she travelled, probably on the train, out into Surrey, had the child baptised at the church and then literally had to hand him over to a new family and presumably paid some money out of her wages in order to keep him. So you know none of that. You know that's what you sort of think about, but it's not actually really recorded as such. You look at the records and you just, I guess, put yourself in their shoes and you have a lot of respect for the ladies, I think.

Speaker 1:

So if you're at a dinner party, then, jude, and somebody says to you, tell us about your family tree, is there a particular person that you know that you have a? You know that is interesting to you. Is there a particular event that you would share? What would it be?

Speaker 2:

I suppose I often pick something that I'm doing currently If you have to be careful, because obviously you can go into too much detail. And you know I've known from an early age not everyone is interested in family history. I mean, many people are and I think there's a great role for family history to play in, you know bringing people together and sharing stories and you know learning about history. But I suppose if I had to pick a story that I think people might find interesting, I would talk about my great-great-grandfather, who lost his arm in an accident, so my grandmother. I only had one grandparent that I really knew and she died when I was 13. And again as a small child I used to say you know, grandma, you know who is your best friend, because that's the sort of thing that feels quite important. Oh, is there anything else you can tell me? And she mentioned that, oh, there was some relative that lost his arm and throughout my life that has stuck in my head. You know who was this relative? Was it true? And how do I find out? I don't even have a name. You know who could he be?

Speaker 2:

But as time has gone on I've discovered a lot of my family were railway workers Originally agricultural labourers, obviously looked to better themselves, find new work opportunities and travelled around on the railways. So her grandfather was a. He worked for GWR on the railways, and on ancestry I found his service records and there was a period where in his employment it says that he was at Wei Il. His service was in March 1888. So what does that mean? Did he have pneumonia? Did he have TB? What was it? But he disappears for about six months and then reappears in Western Supermere as a gateman on the railway, and I know from researching this that a gateman was quite a lonely job. You're pretty much at the bottom of the scale where you know your pay would be lower. It was the sort of job that if you had an elderly person wouldn't be too taxing, you could do. So you know, you had that light bulb memory.

Speaker 2:

Well, maybe it's him, maybe, maybe he was the ancestor that lost his arm. But how? What happened? So, again looking at the records, I knew where he was when he was away ill, and he was in a little village called Maiden Newton, so Maiden Newton in Dorset. And so I was being scouring the newspapers trying to find a record and in the end I did. His name was Joe Sia Bullock. He was under the name Joseph Bullock, which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense. He probably was called Joe by everybody. So you know, the newspaper reporter just presumed he was Joseph and there's the story of him shunting trucks one evening checking the goods in the truck, and another one came along, bumped into his truck. He gets thrown out and his arm goes across the track. And then another truck runs along and he severs his arm completely. So he's rushed to hospital in Dorchester and luckily, I think, they amputated his arm and he was saved.

Speaker 2:

So I mean, I was delighted to find this. I have one picture of him and I sort of see on his suit one of the sort of jacket. Arms looks a bit loose. You can't definitely say but it, you know, it looks quite promising that his arm is missing. And yeah, and you think how that affected his life, really losing an arm and yet still continuing on. And I think in those days you didn't really get any compensation. Perhaps you got another job, even if it was at a low grade. That was, you know, thought to be quite a good thing and you know we're doing you a favor. So yeah, that was a really great discovery of mine.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I mean, what an interesting story. And it's funny, isn't it how you were saying about the name being different, and I think we have a lot of people listening to this podcast, jude, who are starting out, and I think maybe one of the things that they should be aware of is, a bit, like you saying, thinking outside the box. The fact is, probably everybody called him Joe. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's why the newspaper assumed it was Joseph. Yeah, but you were still able to identify from that report that that was actually your ancestor.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm quite tenacious. I think once I really want to find something, I'm going to find it. But yeah, I mean, if you're doing any online searching, you know, think about ticking that box. That includes variants, even if it's second year maybe. Try the name as you know it to start with. Think that maybe a middle name might have been used in sort of a first name, or they might be, you know, use the other way around. I think one has to be.

Speaker 2:

One of the skills of being a good genealogist is that you have to be quite creative. You have to have a certain amount of rigor and not get, you know, carried away with flights of fancy and you know well, it's got to be, because I want it to be. But at the same time, you need to have a bit of imagination, and I think I'm always a big fan, too, of looking at the local and social history. I think that gives you a lot of pointers and a lot of understanding of what you find to. I know there's talk at the moment about AI and how that could revolutionize things, and I'm sure there will be lots of applications. But you still have to sort of understand what you're finding, you have to interpret it and I think looking at the say, the context and the local and social history can really help and there's not a shortcut to that and I think your appreciation of your family will be all that much richer as well If you take that effort to, you know, find out about the life and times of your ancestors.

Speaker 1:

Speaking about technology and I suppose new technologies I don't know, probably not that new anymore but DNA. How has DNA changed your research? Has it helped or has it hindered?

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, definitely helped. I find it's something that I want to keep dabbling in all the time. I'm desperate to sort of try and keep all my matches in order and have them in nice groups and things. But yeah, I mean, just this week I've been corresponding with a distant cousin who's probably maybe fourth cousin to me and we collaborated a little bit on looking at matches that we share with a family called Gale in Wiltshire and rather interestingly there were a lot of American matches with the name Reynolds, with the surname Reynolds, and neither of us really knew who these people were and how they were related to us. But it was definitely from the DNA matches it was definitely certain they were related to us and just this week we had a big breakthrough in that, looking at the family tree online. They were descended from a chat called John Reynolds but I couldn't find any connection between the John record Reynolds they had on their tree and my own family tree and it turns out they had the wrong John Reynolds.

Speaker 2:

The correct John Reynolds was born illegitimately and it turns out that my my correspondent, his great grandfather, must have been the father of this illegitimate child and we can see that from the DNA. He had a wife who had just died, and he then went off to Lambert the following year and got married again. But in between this child was born and what's really fascinating is that we've discovered that marriage bans were called for the mother of the child and this ancestor, but there's no actual record of the marriage. So it looks as if he was probably grieving the death of his young first wife. He'd had three children, two had died in infancy. His wife had just died at the age of 26.

Speaker 2:

And he obviously met this lady. She became pregnant and he probably thought I should do the do the right thing and marry her. And they had bans called three times. But for whatever reason, he got coffee, he didn't go ahead with it. And London, and If it wasn't for the DNA, we would have never have found this certificate of an illegitimate child called John Reynolds, to say. The name doesn't appear in our family research at all. So this sort of secret has come out. And of course the correspondent, who's a DNA match with me, my sort of fourth cousin he's wondering well, if he'd taken a different decision, if he'd married her, then maybe I wouldn't be here because he would have never wanted to lambor the married woman who he's descended from. So yeah, dna throws up some fascinating things.

Speaker 1:

It has definitely helped my research. And now those that listen or those that know me not from the podcast, will know that I do a show on ITV called DNA Journey and our celebrities often get DNA alerts on their phone. And last night I've got a team of four students helping me at the moment to do some research for some future episodes of the podcast. And last night we had a DNA drop and honestly, it's like who are they related to? You know, because this person in particular has come to me because they don't know who their dad is. We're going to actually talk about it on a future podcast episode.

Speaker 1:

Last night when it dropped I was like, honestly, I was like a kid in a shop. I was like, quick, let's have a look at the matches. You know, can I find out the maternal side? Who's the paternal side? So I must admit I do get very excited about DNA. I've not so much yet used the trait side of it. I haven't really used that and I don't, I'll be honest with you. I don't so much use the ethnicity breakdowns, but the cousin matches have been so helpful just to kind of prove or disprove the research. I think more than anything, you know, if you think that you are, you know if you're building a family tree. I suppose it's one way to check that you are actually building the right family, because you can. You can check the A so records then do you have it's something that I asked most of my guest, jude do you have a favorite record?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I think it would probably be a toss up between wills and newspapers. I think both of those records tell you something a bit about the person you know, maybe like a will, you hear their voice, so you, you know something about what's important to them. I always think wills or spinsters are married. Ladies are particularly interesting because they often mention friends, not just the family, but you know some of the. You can tell that, like their girlfriends, women of the same sort of age that they often have, they obviously knew very well and they gift them their best dress. Or you know their bed, their lovely feather bed, or you know something that was precious to them. And also you can find out sometimes about extended family. You know the sort of nephews and nieces and cousins and things. So you get a wider picture and maybe even get a hint of I know family disputes where you know my son, john, is only going to get you know five shillings, where everyone else gets you know 30 pounds because there's obviously been some falling out or maybe he also received something ahead of time. So so wills are good.

Speaker 2:

I did a study of a village where I looked at all the wills from that village and I found that really fascinating because of course our ancestors were mentioned in other people's wills. But we may not know that Because generally we only look at the wills that we think our ancestors might have made or we think, oh, my ancestors weren't very wealthy, they were very ordinary, they would have never have left a will. They may appear in wills of other family members or friends. So obviously you can't always do that on a big scale, but if your ancestors came from a small place and the wills are indexed, that's something that I would really recommend.

Speaker 1:

In terms of your own research. So can we just talk a bit about your blogs? So, how did you get into blogging? Yeah, can we, because, like they are legendary. So how did you get into blogging, and is it something that you've always done?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think I've always to say from an early age I loved history and I had a wonderful opportunity. After I graduated I joined the Institute of Herodic and Genological Studies in Canterbury, so I was 23 years old, the only sort of woman initially on the team and it was very much a hobby for retired people who had the time. But I say I always had this sort of passion to pass on my knowledge and to teach and to do client research and sort of share my findings. So I've always really enjoyed that aspect as well as doing my own research at the same time. And then I got married and went off to America. So I lived in Chicago for 10 years and it was a stage of my life where, busy with kids living in a different country, I never lost my interest, but that had to be on the back burner for a while. And then, as my kids have grown up, I thought right now is the time to get back into it, Because what do I really enjoy doing? You know you have to sort of find yourself and perhaps reinvent yourself a little bit. So, whereas you know my role, as you know, mother and family person, you know that was, you know, the central thing. Now I could also branch out and sort of rediscover a lot of other stuff.

Speaker 2:

So back in 2020, I decided that I would have a go at writing a blog, and it was a bit of intimidating at first. You know how do you get started, how do you figure out how to use WordPress, which is the software that I have my blog on. But I found it really fun and for me, it served lots of purposes. One was to help me with my own research. It meant that I could organize my own research. I'd sort of see where oh, perhaps I'll check this up or maybe I don't know anything about that time.

Speaker 2:

It sort of showed any gaps that I have and sort of weave it together, and I'm a great believer in the value of creating stories. You want something that you can share with people, that people are going to find interesting, and that was a big sort of motivation to create the stories and also, at the same time, on the educational front, tell people perhaps how you can put a family history together, what sources you can use. So I try not to be too boring, but I want people to see how I found the information and hopefully inspire them to think oh yes, you know that's a good idea. I could look at that record source as well and find out something about my family, to entertain with an interesting story and also to educate and hopefully inspire people to, you know, do better with their own research. I think that's been my, my sort of principle behind the block.

Speaker 1:

So somebody starting out who's listening to this, who may be thinking about doing genealogy, have you got any hints and tips and Anything you could advise on for anybody who is pretty new to this?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I suppose the classic of course is to Talk to people you know, talk to any grandparents if they're still around, any aunts and uncles, any cousins, because often things pass down, you know, in different branches of the family. So you may think, oh, I don't know anything, I don't have anything, I've got no photographs, I've got no records. But it's surprising If you actually ask people they might say, oh, yes, yes, no, I think we do actually have. There is a photo album in the loft. I haven't looked at that for years or so.

Speaker 2:

Try and gather as much information as possible. Also, perhaps consider joining a family history society. They do a tremendous work and I think it can be something where you learn so much from other people. You know, if somebody can sort of guide you a little bit and show you, you know how to find your way around. You know one of the main genie energy websites, how to perhaps construct a family tree. I would also recommend even taking a course. There's a lots of great courses run by the Institute in Canterbury, ferros, all sorts of things to build up your knowledge, because, like anything else, you sort of need to find your feet first and Know how to find the information, also to interpret it. But it's great fun and very addictive. So be warned if you start you will never finish.

Speaker 1:

That's true, actually? Yeah, I think I kind of put mine. I spend that much time to you doing everybody else's family tree that mine is currently, you know, sat there still waiting to be Finished, as far as I can finish it, but I've been that sidetracked. You know, the other genealogists keep kindly offering to do mine for me, which is lovely, but at some point I am hoping. Hoping to get back to it now. Jude, I always finish the podcast by asking this one question, right? So if you Could invite anybody from your family tree round for dinner tonight, who would it be and why and what would you cook them?

Speaker 2:

Hmm, oh, that's an interesting question. I Think I might like to invite my uncle. My uncle, gordon, was my dad's older brother and he was a battle of Britain pilot. So he tragically died when he was only 23 years old as a prisoner of war in Hamburg. So I Think he's the ancestor. I know he's sort of quite close to me, both sort of you know being, you know my father's brother, but also Seeing his photos, seeing his medals. I even have a pocket diary that he kept as a prisoner of war and I've spent a lot of time Looking at his squadron he was at five, four squadron and the role of the Battle of Britain pilots and I. I Think they did an amazing job.

Speaker 2:

I'd love to hear some of the stories about, you know, his flying days. My dad said that he, if he was out on a mission, when he returned back to Horn Church where the squadron was based, he used to fly over the family farm, really low and and slightly scare people on the ground, but also sort of you know, waggle the wings of his plane to let you know his mom know that he had returned safely. And I would just love to yeah, I would love to talk to him find out about what he went through and and, yeah, I think he was just a very special, special person who I feel you know he and you know that his fellow pilots we owe such a lot to. So I would, I would love to have him for dinner and I Don't know what I would cook him. Really, I'm vegetarian and I don't think he probably would like vegetarian food. I'd have to Say she probably like a nice roast dinner with you. So, yeah, I Dinner and maybe put in something that he'd never had before, like, I know, sticky toffee pudding.

Speaker 1:

Oh, honestly, you've sold me dude. Let me know how come round Genealogy. Can I just say thank you so much for coming on the podcast. If you have a question that you would like to ask genealogy dude, you can. I'll put her details below in the description or you can do so. You can ask me and I shall pass it on. My website is wwmcalehunecom. I think you will know that by now and I'll also put all genealogy dudes information in the description so you can get that as well below and there will be links to dudes website. Genealogy dude. Thank you so much. Have you enjoyed it? We are loved having you on. Please come back.

Speaker 2:

I've loved it. I've loved it. It's been great. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1:

I just can't believe, honestly, how well behaved my dog has been. Normally, at some point I'm having to sort of like cut the podcast and you know, like stopping from barking at a cat or Chewing up you know something he shouldn't be doing, or humping my arm, but he's been very, very, very good today actually. Bless him. So you haven't had to meet him, which is a good thing, which is a really good thing. Thanks again to everybody for listening. We really really appreciate you taking the time to download and listen to the podcast.

Speaker 1:

I love all your comments and all your messages to me. Please keep them coming. I know that for a lot of you, the podcast has been really useful and Helped you to sort of further your family history research, which is what the aim of this podcast is. So thank you very much for listening. That is it for this week. Next week I am back with Daniel Loftus and I'm sure that you will enjoy hearing about him and his research. So have a good week researching folks, enjoy yourselves, get yourself down to an archive if you can, and I shall see you again next week. Thank you very much.

Exploring Genealogy and Family History
Discovering a Great-Great-Grandfather's Lost Arm
DNA and the Impact on Research
Rediscovering Genealogy and Family History
Appreciation for Podcast and Upcoming Episode