If you have been watching the latest series of “Who do you think you are?” on BBC TV, or you have seen the recent series of “Heir Hunters” on morning TV, you may now be interested in trying to trace you own family roots.  There has also been a series of Family History Taster Session at many of the local Library’s during September.Both of the TV programs show the value of knowing where we come from.  The Heir Hunters series follows a number of specialist companies who make a living from tracing living relatives, when distant family members have died without leaving a will.  If you are lucky enough to be traced in this way, the inheritance will most rightly be yours – if you can prove you are related to the person who has died.  If no one can be found then the estate goes to the government.  You can only make a claim for up to 12 years and still be successful in receiving the inheritance, after that then you may not succeed.  Of cause the companies do this for a commission, which is how they make their money.  This aspect of you family tree is the important and possibly valuable side of genealogy.  So if you have a well researched family tree then this can save everyone concerned lots of time when pursuing and claim.  If fact this happened to my own family many years ago.  Someone called at the house saying they had important information regarding an estate which may belong to my Grandparents.  On this occasion my Aunt decided that she would investigate and successfully found copies of birth certificates to prove the connection and therefore the relationship.  The family all benefited from a significant estate of a distant cousin who had no other living relatives in his line.  So it can work.

If you have already started your own family tree or are now just thinking of making a start we can help with local information such as censuses, local directories, and baptism, marriage and burial records for the main local churches and cemeteries.  Why not make a start at our annual exhibition we will be most welcome and have all this information available for you to investigate and research your family.  When you know who you are looking for and where they came from, you can go to the local Registry Office for the area concerned and obtain official copies of any certificates you may need, be they birth, marriage or death certificates.  You can also apply for any certificates from anywhere in the country from the GRO in Southport.  If this sounds too complicated we will also have experts on hand at the exhibition who can give you a helping hand to get your research started. You only need the names and locations in which the relatives were born, we can then help you develop your Family Tree from this. We will also have lots of local photographs which may also contain photos of your relatives.  Why not come along and take a look.

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