Mine include shopkeepers, shoemakers, cotton-mill workers and farm labourers. My wife's ancestors include fisherfolk, quarry workers and more farm labourers. Most were ordinary people who affected the lives of people they knew. Here are a few of their stories.

(The family connections to an Archbishop of York and James Watt are not proved).

The 'owls logo' at top of this page was devised by one of my ancestors. Click Inventor of Soap for an explanation of this adopted family crest