Those rumours – every family has them. Frequently they seem to relate to money in Chancery or Coats of Arms (almost certainly, if you are entitled to these you would know about it). Then there is the three brothers story. This one usually involves them all adopting slightly different spellings of the same surname. Well it happens but rarely as the result of a conscious decision by the individuals involved. Oh and the ‘came over with the Conqueror’ story. Maybe your ancestors did. Are you likely to be able to prove it? – No. When manning (or womanning) a family history stall you can pretty much guarantee that you will get at least one claim of descent from the Normans who arrived with William I. A late dear friend even had a sweatshirt made with the slogan ‘I have Norman Ancestors’ on it. In his case I had no grounds to disagree – his surname was Norman!

Two of the stories in my own family both begin with S. Firstly, my great grandfather, or maybe his father, was supposedly offered a half share in Smith’s Crisps for £50 and turned it down saying it wouldn’t catch on. Likely to be true? Well the surname was Smith – that’s a start. We certainly didn’t inherit Smith’s Crisps millions and in any case they long since sold out to a conglomerate. The Smiths were corn factors, grocers and tea dealers, sounds promising. For years I traced my own Smith ancestry. I discovered who founded Smith’s Crisps and I traced his ancestry too, as best I could. Geographically the families were close but I could not nail the link. I turned to other lines. Then when my daughter, at the time aged twelve, was in hospital she wanted to do some family history so together we revived the Smith research. It was at this point that I had another conversation with the friend I mentioned under ‘K is for Kinship’. Instead of saying ‘I am related to the Smith’s of London’, this time I added the Smith’s Crisps connection. Back came the reply ‘That is my Smith line.’ One of her relations, who fortunately had an unusual surname, was married to the Smiths of Smith’s Crisps and she had the vital piece of documentation that allowed me to make the connection. I can’t actually prove the £50 part of the story but my great grandfather and the founder of Smith’s Crisps were first cousins.

The other rumour is one that has been perpetuated in many branches of the Braund family. Allegedly the Braunds were of Spanish descent and arrived in Devon following the wreck of a Spanish Armada ship. This story appeared in the Evening Standard in 1928 and is dragged out by the media every silly season. It is even mentioned on interpetation boards in the North Devon village of Bucks Mills, home to many Braunds. True? No, total bunkum. There were no Braunds in Bucks Mills until the nineteenth century. ‘But’, say those who rather like the sound of this story, ‘The Braunds are quite swarthy and Spanish looking.’ Well, perhaps Braunds from elsewhere then? Nope. Braunds can be found in North Devon more than a hundred year before the Spanish Armada and in Lincolnshire for 300 years before that. Added to this, no Armada ship was wrecked of that part of the coast, despite ‘Armada’ cannon (that look distinctly Napoleonic in date) in a local park.

Do you have family stories? Often there is a grain of truth in these. They are certainly worth investigating, as long as you do not have great expectations of them being accurate in every particular. The fun is in the chase not the outcome. I greatly enjoyed unearthing the truth behind a friend’s family rumour that she was connected to the chocolate making, prison reforming Quaker Frys. If you want to hear that story you will have to wait until I am giving my ‘From Darlington to Wellington: the sad story of Isabella Fry’ talk!

Under ‘E is for evidence’ I wrote about the importance of evidence for historians. Diligent historians not only seek sources that will provide corroborating evidence for statements that they make but they will cite those sources equally diligently. In the world of family history there should be no vital event on a pedigree, or statement in a family story, that is un-attributed. You may know where a piece of evidence came from but does anyone else? When you are no longer the custodian of your family history, someone else should be able to follow your research trail. References serve to authenticate your work and enable others to understand how you reached your conclusions. Without references you might as well write a work of fiction. Without evidence you probably are writing a work of fiction!

Lately there has been a upsurge in courses and articles stressing the need for genealogical proof and this is laudable. The phrase ‘forensic genealogy’ has being bandied about, as if this were some form of elite genealogy. There is even a Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy. What is forensic genealogy? It appears to mean the creation of a pedigree backed up by evidence and cited references. I certainly have no argument with this methodology, which is one I both advocate and adopt. In 2010 Colleen Fitzpatrick wrote ‘Forensic genealogy has established itself as the modern approach to family research, for hobbyists, for the legal profession, and for law enforcement.’ This approach is not new, it is not ‘modern’, it is merely common sense. Forensic genealogy is in fact just good genealogy and many of us have been practising it for decades. Surely forensic genealogy should be the only form of genealogy – we are back to John Titford’s ‘genealogy for grown-ups’ (see ‘I is for Internet Genealogy’). Why would anyone want a pedigree that is based on guesswork?

There are those who say that all this obsession with evidence and with original sources and their citation makes a hobby seem like a great deal of hard work. Thoroughness is a necessary part of the process. Anyone who sets out to trace their family tree surely wants just that – their family tree, not someone else’s, not one that is inaccurate or cobbled together.

The sad thing about the advocacy of forensic genealogy and the provision of courses about genealogical proof is the accompanying suggestion that there is another sort of genealogy. ‘Hey, I’m only an amateur, I’m not one of these forensic guys, I don’t need to worry about evidence/sources/citations/proof.’ Well sorry but yes you do. If you want a pretty chart or that work of fiction I mentioned, go ahead, create your pedigree without reference to your sources, write a family history lacking in citations but this is not genealogy, forensic or otherwise.

The history of our families comes down to us through documents that we may need to seek out, through memories (our own and those of others), through places and through objects. Many of these artefacts are only significant if their stories are known, preserved and perpetuated. You may be aware of the significance of various ‘heirlooms’ but do your nearest and dearest? Items that may seem of no value, financially or aesthetically, become precious if their background is recorded. Do therefore take time to make a note of why objects in your possession have a family significance. At least then, when you are no longer their custodian, your descendants will be conscious of what they have inherited. Any decision that they then make to keep or discard items will be an informed one.

I am fortunate enough to have inherited two patchwork quilts, neither of which is quite complete. One was made by my mother in the early 1960s. It contains many materials that I remember from my early childhood. The other is much older, begun by my great grandmother in the 1880s. Most of the fabrics are tiny, floral, Victorian prints. Some of the papers are still within the hexagons; these have been cut from an exercise book of a similar era. My grandmother and mother also contributed to this quilt and I have begun to finish it by hemming round the edges. I shall deliberately leave a little undone, allowing my children and grandchildren (okay so the grandchildren have to get a little older before we trust them with a needle!) to work on the quilt too. That will make six generations working on one object and providing I record its story, it will be a true heirloom.

Having dealt with journeys and migration yesterday ‘K’ gives me the opportunity to write about another of the themes underpinning my ‘emigrants’ research – kinship. What role does kinship play in migration choices? Certainly there is plenty of evidence for chains of migration, where one family member goes overseas and is followed by siblings, cousins or other relatives. This leads us on to wonder how strong family ties were for our predecessors. Particularly in a small rural community, where many inhabitants were related in some way, how aware would our ancestors have been of those relationships? Unless they are family historians, many people in today’s world would struggle to name all their first cousins, let alone be in contact with them. How much is this due to the fact that many families are now widely geographically dispersed, whereas a century ago they might still be living in close proximity? In the days when families were larger, did cousins become insignificant because siblings were numerous?

Many celebrity tree hunters are keen to link two disparate celebrities on the same pedigree. If we try hard enough and follow many ancestral lines we can probably link ourselves to someone famous, to royalty, or to a number of our friends and acquaintances. There was a dear family history friend whom I had known for many years. We had long since had the conversation ‘I am descended from the Smiths of London’. ‘So am I! Ha! We must be related!’ A considerable while later it turned out that we were indeed related (more of that story when we get to S).

The Church where my great great grandmother and also my daughter were baptised

Equally we can probably connect ourselves to many places through our distant kin. So, for example, my four times great grandfather, William Braund, had a sister called Betty. Betty’s husband was Gamaliel Bartlett, whose father was, in 1735, baptised in the parish where I now live. Convoluted I know but the connection is there. More eerily, I moved to Buckinghamshire in 1982, believing myself to have no ancestral connections in the county. After I moved away I discovered that not only had my grandmother been born in Buckinghamshire, despite her family living in London but that my great great grandmother had lived in the same road in which I was make my home.