In this third episode of Season Nine, host Andrew Martin meets Gary Stanley - a family historian who has researched his Romany roots. Andrew hears about Gary's research web project in which he documents all references in the UK and USA of Roma families, and he explains the challenges of researching relatives, the benefit of baptismal records and newspapers, and how he participated in a DNA test led by Professor Turi King.

THE LIFE STORY - ELIZABETH NICHOLS
Gary has chosen to tell the life story of one of his Romany relatives Elizabeth Nichols... and it is quite extraordinary!

Elizabeth appeared to baptise a child, with the father noted as Antonio Nichols - a Portuguese sailor. Then Gary finds another baptism... then another... except the baptisms spread around the area, and sometimes the details are a little different. Sometimes Elizabeth's surname is Nichols, Nicholas, or Nicholson, sometimes it's Stivery or Twivey. Sometimes Antonio is deceased or at sea.

This pattern intrigued Gary, and following the clues and an incredible amount of research, he has found around 600 baptisms during the 1830s! So many, that he even created a website to map them around England and Scotland.

It's very clear that Elizabeth did not have 600 children, and the register entries note that sometimes the child is a new-born, or of a few years old. So, did Elizabeth have a few children that could span this age?

The question is obviously; Why go to this much effort? Gary believes that in order for Elizabeth to receive parish relief (a monetary benefit paid by the church), the child had to be baptised. Given Elizabeth's Romany heritage, she moved around regularly, and therefore amassed 600 known baptisms for her children, in order to receive relief!  

THE BRICK WALL - ELIZABETH NICHOLS
Connecting directly to the Life Story that Gary has told, is his brick wall.

Gary may well have found hundreds of baptisms for her children, but he's wanting to find out;

• Where was Elizabeth Nichols before the 1830s
• What became of Elizabeth Nichols after 1840s?

If you think you have a research idea or clue to help Gary with his research, you can send him a message via his website, alternatively, you can send us a message and we'll pass it along to him.

In the meantime, Andrew offers Gary some help,

Explore over 300 years of history
Trace your family history through 50 million+ newspaper pages at the British Newspaper Archive.

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