Dig out your family roots (From Gazette & Herald)

Dig out your family roots

TRACING your Yorkshire ancestry back through the annals of time may sound like a quaint undertaking. You probably imagine leafing through an old census in a provincial library at the foot of the moors.

In the information age, however, genealogy is a bit more snappy.

Family history is the second most accessed subject on the internet - the first is pornography and the third is music.

A unique business in Ebbertson has its finger right on the pulse when it comes to research, and is actually unique in the service it provides to ancestor hunters worldwide.

Visitors from all over the country and overseas can visit the Yorkshire Family History Research Centre, and stay at the Studley House Farm bed and breakfast while they conduct their research.

An extensive archive, internet access and the expertise of proprietor Brenda Green and her research partner, Janice Wood, are all available to those trying to trace their family in Yorkshire. Record offices in York, Beverley and Northallerton are only a short drive away.

Even the setting of the library has historic reverberations, as a converted old farm outbuilding, which residents can use freely and day visitors can access for three hours at £5.

Brenda began by getting hooked on her own family history 28 years ago. "Back in those days, it wasn't recognised as a pastime," she explains. "You were almost embarrassed to claim it as a hobby. There were a few societies here and there, but nothing like there is now."

While pregnant with her first child, she spotted an old trade directory on a shelf at her husband's aunt's house. She fancied reading through it as a change from baby books.

"I read it from cover to cover and was fascinated by all the information you could glean." she said. After that, she joined the family history section of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society based in Leeds.

Some years later, she and her husband moved to Pickering and bought a caravan park. "When chatting to a lot of our guests, they said they were here because they had ancestors in the area.

"I would find myself saying 'I've got a book that might help you', and gradually set aside a shelf for people to look at."

When she and her husband looked to buy a bed and breakfast business, and take life a bit easier, they decided to expand the library, since they had inadvertently discovered a niche in the market.

"Taking things easy never quite panned out," jokes Brenda. "Now the library is up and running, I am on hand to help people with their tracing and I get as involved with other people's families as I do for my own."

With real expertise, she guides people through the rafts of trade directories, census, hearth tax lists, parish registers and even telephone directories, some original and some transcribed, and some dating back to the 16th century.

"If people aren't staying for long, I will give them a nudge in the right direction," says Brenda "but it's nice to let them find things themselves - it can spoil it if they find things too quickly."

And it's not always a bed of roses. "I've had people burst into tears in the past," says Brenda. "I cringe when I hear people say they've got right back to the 1600s using only the internet. Often, if they have worked on it overseas and then come here with an idea in their head, you have to break it all down and start again.

"Really, you need three pieces of evidence to prove something. We can do so much here - we cover the whole of Yorkshire - but the local libraries which have town records are fantastic, we encourage people to go there too. The internet is a marvellous thing, but anything on there is transcribed and, therefore, subject to human error."

She also takes pains not to alienate those researchers who are not IT literate. "There are some people who will never want to go near a computer, and that's fine," she says.

She and Janice run two beginners courses a month, and try and tailor the session to their pupils. "So far we haven't had a failure," she said. "We have been able to find something for everyone."

And for residential guests, the detective work can be quite elaborate. "We had one man here from the West Midlands who came and did his research, which took him up to a village in Richmond," said Brenda.

"He ended up meeting a woman who he was related to, who was able to give him a picture of his great-grandmother."

By attracting people with such a reverence for Yorkshire, and for some very sentimental feelings towards the place, the business complements the local tourist trade perfectly.

"The people who come here are very 'good' tourists," explains Brenda. "They aren't going to take back a present that was made in China. They want the real experience, they want to see old churches and eat local honey, they go to farmers' markets and theirs is the kind of tourism which really invests in local traditions and helps to keep them alive. The volume of interest in all things Yorkshire never ceases to amaze me."

And with bookings into 2005, there doesn't seem like any danger of that interest waning. Visitors are drawn to a corner of the world they feel somehow a part of, and Brenda and Janice are there to greet them and begin work on their historic sleuthing.

Updated: 12:27 Wednesday, May 19, 2004