After completing a PhD in History at the University of Cambridge and undertaking a visiting fellowship at Yale University in 2019, I decided to use my skills in the commercial sector as a freelance genealogist and historical researcher. I revived a longstanding and passionate interest in genealogy and studied part-time towards a Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies at the University of Strathclyde, and graduated with this qualification in 2024. I conduct genealogical research projects for clients as well as contributing to the Commons and the Lords sections of the History of Parliament project. I am highly active in two of the professional bodies that exist to support genealogists. I am a member and one of the directors of the Register of Qualified Genealogists. Additionally, I am a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and a representative for its Britain, Ireland the Isles Chapter. I also belong to the Society of Genealogists in London.
My academic research has focused on religion, politics and education in nineteenth-century England. I have degrees in history from Oxford and Cambridge, and have had peer-reviewed articles published in the English Historical Review, Studies in Church History and Church History (see my publications). My PhD thesis about the early nineteenth-century Church of England can be read here. I have previously served on the committee of the Ecclesiastical History Society and on the council of the Church of England Record Society. I am now one of the editors of the Journal of Genealogy and Family History, an inter-disciplinary and peer-reviewed journal published online by the Register of Qualified Genealogists.
In my spare time, I am on the trail of my own ancestors, and am in the process of writing a book tracing one branch of my family from around 1750 to 1950. My genealogical research has taken me to one of the oldest family reunions in the United States, to a beach where an ancestor was shipwrecked in the eighteenth century and to a churchyard where my 6x great-grandparents’ headstone is still visible.
I also take a strong interest in local and institutional history. I have enjoyed exploring historic architecture and landscapes, particularly in Surrey and neighbouring counties in the south of England. I have researched the history of every place I have lived, and have developed my skills in tracing house history in the process. I am often struck by the amount of historical interest which can be found in supposedly ‘ordinary’ buildings and localities. I have thereby developed a fascination with suburbia, small towns, seaside resorts, rights of way and pubs.
Despite what I have written above, I do not spend all of my time in archives or on field trips! I enjoy music, literature and cinema. I also love spending time with friends and family. And when circumstances permit, I like to travel in North America.