After a career in hotel management I now head up risk and compliance for a specialist independent residential college for young adults with disabilities and live in Stroud in Gloucestershire within view of the woollen mill where my great grandfather worked.

I started researching my family history back in 1976 whilst still at school after seeing the old Moorhouse family bible for the first time. In time I really focused on my maternal great grandmother’s name of Farmery and this developed into a worldwide one-name study, with worldwide contacts, an annual family gathering held since 2000 and an associated Y-DNA project.

I joined the Guild of One-Name Studies in 1994 and and have been an active member for more than 15 years. I handle all bookings for their seminars and annual conferences and am vice-chair of the seminar organising committee. I co-organised the 2019 and 2022 (April) annual conference and was awarded Master Craftsman of the Guild in 2017.

I am a member of the Society of Genealogists (London), the family history societies of Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, and am membership secretary of the Cave FHS.

I have spoken at Guild seminars in the past and have delivered 2 one-day “how to research UK ancestors” family  history workshops in Wyoming for the Cheyenne Genealogical Society.

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