Welcome to The Tree Genie Journal
A cosy corner of the website where I share the stories behind the branches — personal reflections, historical discoveries, and the curious ancestry that connects us all. This is where research meets storytelling, where small details spark big questions, and where every post invites you to explore the past that shaped your present.
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Are We All Related If We Go Back Far Enough?
When we trace our family lines back through the centuries, the branches begin to blur, overlap, and reconnect in surprising ways. This post explores the idea that our stories may be far more intertwined than we realise — and how history, migration, and time reveal just how connected we truly are.
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A Diary That Survived When Records Didn’t
Exploring Anne Frank’s family history reveals a deeply personal story behind one of the world’s most famous diaries — a reminder of how family stories survive even when official records fade.
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From a London Draper’s Son to Lord Mayor
From a London Draper’s Son to Lord Mayor An Unexpected Beginning One of the biggest misconceptions about family history is that it belongs to “other people” — grand families, famous names, stories already written in history books. Not ours. Most of us expect to find ordinary lives in our trees: quiet ones, people who worked…
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1911 Census: When Our Ancestors Let Their Personalities Show
Census records are usually thought of as serious historical documents — neat rows of names, ages and occupations recorded for government statistics.
But the 1911 Census of England and Wales occasionally reveals something far more entertaining.
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Are You Royal?
Are You Royal?Could Your Family Tree Lead Back to Kings and Queens It’s a question that fascinates many people when they begin exploring their family history: could I be related to royalty? It might sound unlikely, but surprisingly, the answer for many people is yes — in a very distant sense. As family trees expand…
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A Titanic Steward in My Family Tree
The story of James William Kieran Discovering a Titanic Connection While researching my family tree, I uncovered an unexpected connection to one of history’s most famous disasters. A relative of mine was aboard the RMS Titanic — not as a passenger, but as one of the crew responsible for the welfare of hundreds of emigrants…
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The Search For Shirley
A Family Reunion Decades In The Making How genealogy and DNA helped reunite a family. Sometimes a family story begins with a single unexpected discovery. For my friend Ian, it began with a document that changed everything he thought he knew about himself. After the death of his adoptive mother in 2018, Ian was sorting…
