All About Ancestors

Home
United Kingdom
New Milton
All About Ancestors

Professional Genealogist, Writer & Presenter. English Family History, DNA, Titanic & Maritime. Former BBC journo

18/08/2026

The British Board of Trade’s Deaths at Sea ledger lists the Titanic’s crew losses in stark, bureaucratic terms: “15 April 1912. Position: about latitude 41°16'N, longitude 50°14'W. Cause: supposed drowned. Remarks: ship lost.” The shorthand 'do' on those forms means 'ditto' so the same information repeats down the page.

Entry after entry, page after page – almost 700 times – each record denotes another crew member who perished that night. For instance, it names T. Mullin, steward, 20, from Dumfries; William Murdoch, First Officer, 38, from Dalbeattie; and Francisco Nanineri, head waiter, 42, from Florence. Fireman after fireman, steward after steward, many in their twenties and thirties, with numerous Southampton addresses on adjoining streets.

Those registers are deeply sobering. I come across them regularly in my work – my speciality is research into the Titanic and its crew – but I’m repeatedly compelled to uncover more about the lives and families behind each name. Bringing their identities back into focus is the part of the job I find most fulfilling.

11/08/2026

My article "Inside Steerage" in this month’s 'Who Do You Think You Are?' magazine takes a close look at the conditions millions of emigrant ancestors faced on third-class Atlantic crossings. I reveal the cramped sleeping spaces, poor sanitation, and the daily struggles that defined steerage life for families forging new beginnings.

09/08/2026

Something I've noticed when I'm searching Victorian newspapers for ancestors is how completely different they look from anything we'd recognise as a newspaper today.

Back then, for most newspapers, there were no photographs or images, and no headlines designed to catch the eye across a room. Instead, there was column after column of tightly packed text, classified notices, shipping intelligence, court reports, and announcements, running from the top of the page to the bottom with barely a break.

To the modern eye it looks like an impenetrable wall of text. But I was thinking - it explains something you see constantly in period dramas: the gentleman sitting utterly absorbed in his newspaper for an extended stretch of time. No wonder he needed to concentrate when the newspaper that had arrived at his home looked like these!

04/08/2026

I've been brushing up on employment records lately, and this week it paid off in the best way.

While researching a client's tree, I came across a police inspector I wasn't expecting to find. The police pension record that turned up was beautiful: not just his actual date of birth and parents' names, but a full description of him too, height, build, the lot.

It's one of those records that makes you stop and appreciate just how much detail was kept on police officers, and how useful that can be when other sources dry up.

28/07/2026

When a father died in Woolwich in the 1850s, one of the first things I did was check the local newspapers. Death notices, an obituary, an inquest report, anything that might give me more to work with than a bare register entry.

The search returned results, just not for him. Other deaths, other families, other notices from the same period and area. His name wasn't among them.
That's not unusual, but I was expecting something given his young age of just 36. Not all newspapers have been digitised though, and of course not all deaths appeared in them, especially for working-class families in mid-Victorian London.

So I went back to the records and kept building the picture another way.
Checking newspapers is always worth doing for this period. Just don't assume a blank result for your person means nothing can be found elsewhere.

21/07/2026

Recent research took me online Kidalton, Isle of Islay, and a marriage register from 1824.

The handwriting is slanted and cramped, the kind that takes a little time before your eye adjusts. But packed into those entries were exactly what my client needed: the names, the dates, and the confirmation that the banns had been called before the marriage took place.

What I particularly liked about this register was the registrar's habit of noting, after the names of the couple, that they were "a young man and a young woman." Entry after entry, the same sort of phrasing. It tells you nothing genealogically useful, but it's one of those small details that makes a person feel very present across two hundred years.

The answers were in there - and I was delighted to find them.

13/07/2026

My second front cover article in a row for 'Who Do You Think You Are?' magazine is out soon, and this one's a bit different.

It's aimed at complete beginners, "Start Your Family Tree for Free," but I think even the more experienced researchers among you will enjoy seeing how it came about. I was given one hour a day for seven days to solve a client's brick wall. No budget at all, not even for travel or parking.

It was a proper rollercoaster of a week but by the end, the client had enough to go on a tour of Lancashire, visiting every farm and village I'd traced their ancestors to.

Don't miss my article, subscribe here to make sure it lands on your doorstep:

https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/subscribe

09/07/2026

One of the most common things that turns up after a Christmas DNA kit is an unexpected close match. A possible half-sibling, a previously unknown relative, a name that doesn't fit anywhere in the family tree.

I recently finished working with a family in exactly that situation. Someone had tested over the holidays and found a high match they couldn't place. Turned out to be a half-sister, previously unknown to both of them. Getting there took careful analysis of the shared DNA, working through the surrounding matches, and some documentary research to confirm what the genetics were suggesting.

It's detailed, methodical work, but when it comes together it's genuinely one of the most satisfying parts of the job.

If you've had a surprise match from a recent kit and aren't sure where to start, feel free to get in touch.

06/07/2026

I'll be honest, I'm not really an art person. But Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow was on my sightseeing list last weekend and two paintings that caught my attention.

The first was a Lowry, and even if you don't know art, you know Lowry. That distinctive way of painting figures, the industrial townscape, the bunting and the crowds. You could look at it for ages and keep finding new details.

The second was James Paterson's The Last Turning, Winter, Moniaive (1885), a quiet atmospheric landscape of a Dumfriesshire village in winter, with a solitary woman walking along the path beside the Dalwhat Water. As a genealogist, there's something about a painting like that which makes you think about all the people who lived in places like that, going about their daily lives, with no idea anyone would still be looking at them 140 years later.

02/07/2026

I spent last week in Glasgow for not one but two genealogy conferences, which was really interesting and fun, but fairly full-on. So on the Saturday I gave my brain a rest and did a bit of exploring before flying home.

Glasgow really is an impressive city and I managed to take in a few of its famous landmarks. A lovely way to wind down after what had been a really packed few days.

Address

New Milton
BH255HT

Website

https://AllAboutAncestors.com/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicola-johnson-584257198/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when All About Ancestors posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your practice to be the top-listed Clinic in New Milton?