Search By Place

Locations don’t move, making them a terrific tool

You’re at a huge advantage if your ancestor had a distinctive address. Focusing your search on the place they lived can make it much easier to find them, especially if they had a common surname. The subscription site thegenealogist.co.uk is particularly useful here, because it allows you to search the census just by address, or to enter a keyword from the address while looking for a person.

Consulting local history books about the area where your ancestors lived is also worthwhile, and you might just be lucky enough to find them mentioned by name.

Our research team spends hours at the

British Library and the London

Library, which is how we came across

John Dixon’s 1886 publication Gairloch in North-West Ross-shire:

Its Records, Traditions, Inhabitants and Natural History.

This book revealed that baker Paul Hollywood’s 4x great grandfather Donald MacKenzie, a post runner in the early 19th century, delivered mail to about 30,000 people, running 120 miles a week, always dressed in a kilt!