Melissa Kitchen shares family stories and gives us tips on how to find and record them. We discuss living in the USA, ancestors who came across on the Mayflower, New England and lots more.

There is a guest blog post to accompany this episode with some of the suggestions and resources on https://emmacox.co.uk/guest-blog-the-secret-spell-using-our-5-senses-to-bring-our-stories-to-life. Also please visit Journeys into Genealogy on Substack for additional content including an extra interview with Melissa.

Writer and researcher Vanessa Wood talks about her own family history including migration from Sweden to Tennessee and Virginia USA and her book "Pryor Wives" about the women who married into several Pryor families who shared a common surname, but probably did not share blood or share a family tree. These included pioneer women and their journeys across the US, a former slave and others.

Sarah Hewitt is chair of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists. We discuss what records are available in New Zealand, where they are located, what is available for free including birth, marriage and death records, wills and probate, school records, immigration, newspaper and other archives plus the benefits of joining the New Zealand Society of Genealogists including access to the Kiwi Collection. Sarah has put together a resource sheet which is available via this blog post: https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-your-ancestors-in-new-zealand.

Dean Kirby has researched his ancestors amongst industrial Manchester in the 19th century and his book "Angel Meadow" is about the slum neighbourhood that they lived in and some of the interesting characters who were their neighbours. We discuss pauper ancestors, Manchester industries, cotton and textiles, manufacturing, Irish migration and ancestry, using fire maps, rate books, the "Friends of Angel Meadow" and more.

Hilary Blanford explains the area covered by East Surrey (for non UK listeners part of this is directly south of the River Thames in London), the resources available from the Society, events held including online family history fairs, in person meetings and genealogy/local history walks and some of the transcription projects the Society is working upon including the Philanthropic School for Boys, the Westminster Lying In Hospital and the old psychiatric hospital in Epsom. 

Natalie da Silva of the Genealogical Society of South Africa (www.genza.org.za) talks about all the records and resources available for researching South African ancestors. Plus South African history, immigration, how the country is setup, locations of archives, where records are stored and if they have been digitised and who to contact.  The accompanying blog post gives links to many of these: https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-your-ancestors-in-south-africa. 

Bridget Badoe McQuick (aka Lady Esi) is an oral historian, storyteller and local heritage champion. We discuss her family history, stories and culture in Ghana including burial traditions (funerals go on for 3 days and are a celebration of life and family and some include 'professional wailers') and how this fits with life in England. Plus her work as a heritage champion in Tottenham, London and how to ensure diverse voices are heard and celebrated. 

Fanny Mills discusses her book "Unravelled" full of family secrets, missing people, culture clashes and what she discovered about her family's hidden past. From high society and aristocracy in England in the late 19th and early 20th century one one side and Jewish refugees on the other, to propaganda in north Africa in WWII, all woven around her upbringing in Hampstead, London in the 1960s and 70s.