Current News

The Valentine’s Day traditions of our ancestors and their relevance to our family history.
February the 14th is upon us, but falls on a Sunday this year, so no doubt there will be more texts and e-mails than the traditional cards delivered by the Royal Mail. Our ancestors would be baffled by the technological advances of our modern age, the internet and mobile phones et al, but would no doubt be comforted to see that their traditions were still respected and those highlights of their calendar year continued to be celebrated. Valentine's Day is one such occurrence in our family history that is still as popular an occasion is it was for many of our ancestors and, in celebrating in similar spirit, we can experience a link with our family tree that has a poignancy of its own.
12 February 2010    More...

Our Family History Business is 50 Years Old This Year!
So many individuals set themselves up as genealogists or family historians, using the wonders of the internet and other digitized indexes. However, here at Achievements, we take post-graduates and then train them for another five years, before they are entirely qualified to conduct genealogical research.
Many a snare can await the inexperienced, and a combination of practical experience of cases throughout the country, including England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, as well as further afield, a formal range of study and examinations, equips our genealogists to deal with the most difficult family history cases. Sometimes it can be a mere matter of omission that would stump many researchers. A little example is set out below:-
29 January 2010    More...

Your Family Tree and Winters Past
The Big Freeze, Frost Fairs and the year that Europe Froze

Our European ancestors awoke on 6 January 1709 to find the temperature had plummeted. A three-week freeze was followed by a brief thaw - and then the mercury plunged again and stayed there. From Scandinavia in the north to Italy in the south, and from Russia in the east to the west coast of France, everything turned to ice. The sea froze. Lakes and rivers froze, and the soil froze to a depth of a several feet or more. Livestock died from cold in their barns, chicken's combs froze and fell off, trees exploded and travellers froze to death on the roads. It was the coldest winter in 500 years.
22 January 2010    More...

New Year’s Resolutions, Ancient Traditions and Tracing your Family Tree
Possibly there are many of you tracing your family trees that have made New Year Resolutions as no doubt did some of your ancestors before you. May we suggest that one resolution should be to gather as much information as you can from those members of your family tree with whom you are still in contact. Putting names to old photographs of your ancestors is a particularly useful exercise, for example, as well as gathering family legends, names, dates, places and occupations to add to the store of family history material for your family tree.

So for exactly how long have we been trying to keep to a New Year Resolution or two?
21 January 2010    More...

How your ancestors celebrated the feast of St Stephen on the 26th December.
The Family history research team has recently encountered a few entries recently, whilst investigating the family tree of the Woodcock family in the parish registers of St George in the East, for baptisms occurring on "St Stephens Day", "Innocents Day" and "St John the Apostle Day". These were auspicious days in the calendar of Saints and clearly worthy of addition to the record of the baptism of a child.
18 December 2009    More...

Family history, the family tree and your ancestry this Christmas time…
Your questions answered by our research team.
This is the time of year when families gather together to celebrate and there is no better time to discuss the past, to remember relatives and absent friends and to wonder at the passage of time that has brought the family to the 'Christmas Present' and also to think about the spirit of Christmases past and those of the future to come.
Why not contact our research team with your queries and dilemmas with your unanswered questions and family myths and legends? With a free estimate for the perusal of any family history material our researchers will outline a programme of research together with an estimate of our costs, tailored to your requirements.
15 December 2009