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Friday 19 June 2015

TRACE YOUR ROOTS - a guest post by Maureen Vincent-Northam


Today I'm delighted to welcome fellow Crooked Cat author Maureen Vincent-Northam, whose book Trace your Roots is published today by Crooked Cat Publishing.  I had the pleasure of working with Maureen as editor of Trace Your Roots - and I can highly recommend it to anyone interested in researching family history.

Welcome, Maureen!  Please tell us more...




Thank you, Sue!

I love detective stories – my favourite being the cosy crime sort with an inquisitive amateur sleuth who pokes around looking for clues, asks questions and ultimately, after much nosing around, cracks the case.

Maybe that’s why I turned to family history research because genealogy is very like detective work. It’s all about searching out the truth, finding clues – about your ancestors in this instance, rather than a devious criminal – and assembling the final picture (or in our case the ‘family tree’).

The clues involve tracking down dates and places and who did what to whom. The proof of your findings will, hopefully, be in the original records. But there are times when you’ll get stuck and, unless you have a side-kick who, like in the whodunit novels, happens to hit upon the very thing that untangles the mystery (usually without realising they’ve done so), you’ll need a handy guide to help lead the way.

Enter Trace your Roots! The book has hundreds of helpful, tried and tested, tips – many involving less well know resources that will steer you in the right direction. It was satisfying to write and I hope it will encourage others to solve their own family puzzle.

Please join me on my genealogy blog, I’m always happy to post other people’s stories: http://trace-your-roots.blogspot.co.uk/





Maureen Vincent-Northam has written seriously ever since Father Christmas left her a Petite typewriter. Author of Trace your Roots, she also wrote Black Dog’s Treasure and co-authored The Writer’s ABC Checklist.

An editor with Crooked Cat Publishing, her work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, anthologies and online. She has tutored workshops, judged online writing contests and a few years ago was winner of The Writers’ Advice Centre for Children’s Books competition.


Maureen works part time in a residential home, is rubbish at cooking and, when not burning dinner, can usually be found surrounded by empty chocolate wrappers.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you, Sue, for the opportunity of appearing on your smashing blog!

    ReplyDelete