I have researched our own family history and tried to put the lives of our ancestors into their social contexts wherever possible.

My family history is typical of people from Glamorgan: a mixture of migrants drawn to the Valleys to work in the coalmines in the C19th.  They came from Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire in west Wales, Glamorgan itself, and also from the English West Country.  The photo is of Margam Steelworks at night, one of my first memories.

Family history of my husband, Paul Field, whose family moved over the centuries from East Anglia to the East End of London and then back again. The picture is of champion skaters racing across the fens, just as his ancestors famously did.

Family history of Alex Hayton, our son-in-law, a true European with ancestors from Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and England.  The photo is Utrecht where a branch of his family lived for several hundred years.

Cutlers in Sheffield, cotton mill workers in Lancashire, and publicans in rural Essex - Ben Field (our nephew) has engineering and beer running through his veins.  This photo was taken in 1863 at the Talbot Inn, Stapleford Tawney, where Ben's great-great-great grandfather was listed as an ostler in the 1861 census.

Family history of my brother-in-law, Mick Thompson - a Suffolk boy through and through. Photo shows Southwold Beach (1898) where some of Mick's fishing ancestors lived and worked.

Family history of Julie Brown (mother of one of our nieces-in-law) whose ancestors, at the turn of the C20th, were the backbone of south London: builders in Camberwell and tanners in Bermondsey.  The picture is of Bermondsey tanners.