Its all because of Kunta Kinte

When I was a young and impressionable teen, a sensation shook the nation. The television started broadcasting the story of Kunta Kinte, under the title "Roots". I was hooked. I had been brought up being told by proud grandparents that I was "Yorkshire born and bred", but never met my mum's dad who died before I was born. I now realised it was possible to find out more about past generations. Along with mum, I attended evening classes about how to trace ancestors. We now have my grandfathers war records, and I have his family history going back 2 centuries.

Later I found out that my fathers uncle Harry had researched the old fashioned way, so went to meet him. Now elderly, with failing eyesight, he leant me his research, on the proviso that I found one thing he couldn't - the date and place of his parents marriage. I visited the local archives and trawled backwards from the birth of my grandfather (the eldest child) until I found the wedding. Uncle Harry was delighted when I told him, although a little shocked, as it was 6 months before the birth of my grandfather.

I was most definitely hooked, and have spent many of the intervening years fleshing out the trees of family members, and since being made redundant in May, have now turned my hobby into a job