The Family Histories Podcast

In this fifth episode, The Noble, host Andrew Martin is joined by professional genealogist Marina Brizhatova. She'll be explaining what it's like to research ancestry in Russia, what kind of records are available, and how she got into genealogy. 

Relatively Speaking - Vladimir Udovenko 
Marina chose her step-mother's great grandfather Vladimir Udovenko as her Life Story to tell, and this is a story of a secret identity, but not a voluntary one. It wasn't until many years after Vladimir's death, that the truth about his noble origins came to light - a complete surprise for his descendants.

The Brick Wall - Aleksey Grigoryevich Sarychev   
Marina's Brick Wall is actually mid-way through the life of Aleksey Grigoryevich Sarychev. He and his family had lived in Nyukhovets, in the Ryazan region of Russia for generations until 1812 when all of a sudden they left for another village called Chernobayevo. Then, when the next Revision Tale took place, they'd returned.   

Can you help Marina identify why the family suddenly left their ancestral base, only to return later? Were they escaping something? Were they forced to leave?   

Marina accepts Andrew's offer of help, but her nervousness might be entirely justified... 

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Episode Credits:
Series Two, Episode Five
Andrew Martin (Host/Producer)
Marina Brizhatova (Guest)
Show Notes: familyhistoriespodcast.com

©2021 The Family Histories Podcast

In this fourth episode, The Pimp, host Andrew Martin is joined by writer and Mafia genealogist Justin Cascio. We'll be finding out about how he got into researching his Sicilian family history, and the challenges of researching there, He'll also tell us about how his ancestors lived as immigrants in the US. 

Relatively Speaking - Giuseppe Longo 
Justin has chosen his Gt Grandfather Giuseppe Longo (sometimes 'Joseph') for his life story, and we're straight into a life of crime and prostitution that's all set amongst some of the most notorious mafia gangsters.

We'll find out how this impacted Giuseppe and his family. 

The Brick Wall - Giuseppe Longo!   
In a surprise turn, Justin's brick wall is also his Life Story choice - Giuseppe Longo. However, it's Giuseppe's parents and siblings that are proving hard to find, thanks to conflicting sources of information, and archives that are hard to view.

Was Giuseppe baptised in Cefalu or Capachi, Sicily? Maybe you can help Justin unravel this mystery that allows him to trace another generation back. 

Finally, Justin is happy to accept Andrew's offer of help, but there's a bit of an 'IT glitch'... 

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Episode Credits:
Series Two, Episode Four
Andrew Martin (Host/Producer)
Justin Cascio (Guest)
Show notes: familyhistoriespodcast.com
©2021 The Family Histories Podcast
 

In this third episode, host Andrew Martin meets genealogical crime mystery author, Nathan Dylan Goodwin to find out how he got into family history, how he keeps his ancestral reality separate from his fantasy worlds of Morton Farrier, Mrs McDougall, and the Venator Cold Case Team, and we'll get some teasers from the brand new Morton Farrier book. 

Relatively Speaking - Silas Thomas 
Nathan has chosen his ancestor Silas Thomas, of Sussex, England, and it's an unusual story featuring an unusual metal find that ends up earning him a fortune before landing him in prison. 

The Brick Wall - Thomas Goodwin 
Awkwardly, it's his own Goodwin line that provides Nathan with his research brick wall, so it's over to the listeners to try to help him find his 4x Great Grandfather Thomas Goodwin, born circa 1781, married in 1800 in St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, London, but Nathan needs to find out where he was born. His only clue is the scant detail of the 1841 census, that simply tells him it wasn't Sussex.

Can you help locate more information and bring this brick wall tumbling down? If you think you can help, head over to our show notes for ways to make contact.

Andrew offers Nathan some help in solving this mystery, but he'll have to tread carefully.... 

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Episode Credits:
Series Two, Episode Three
Andrew Martin (Host/Producer)
Nathan Dylan Goodwin (Guest)
John Spike (Sandór Petfői)
Eliot Lees (Foley)
Show Notes: https://familyhistoriespodcast.com
©2021 The Family Histories Podcast.

In this second episode - The Granddaddy - Andrew meets genealogist True Lewis and discovers how she got hooked on researching her family tree, what challenges she faces when researching her enslaved African-American ancestors, her work to research her American Revolutionary ancestor, and she talks about her co-host role on the Black Pro Gen Live show.

Relatively Speaking - Ike Ivery 
True has chosen her 2x Great Grandfather Isaac 'Ike' Ivery for her life story.

Ike was born into slavery in Alabama, USA, but when emancipation came, it is then that his family became the Ivery family - adding an 'r' to discontinue the name of their enslaver.

Ike lived a long and full life, marrying 3 times, having 23 children, and becoming a chaplain and a farmer - and listening to this life story, you can hear just how much love and respect True and her family continue to have towards their granddaddy.

The Brick Wall - Anna Maria Lambert 
It's True's 5x Great Grandmother, Anna Maria Lambert that is giving her the biggest Brick Wall headache.

Anna was born in 1764 in Albany Township, Pennsylvania, USA. Despite knowing this, and having done DNA tests that show a U5b1c2 ancestor group, True has not been able to find records that detail her parents, rumoured to be Dorothea Zimmerman and Nicholas Lambert, and she's been unable to confirm Anna's death too.

She really is True's mystery, and it's one that True believes gives her a connection to European, perhaps German, ancestors.

Can you help her find out more about Anna Maria Lambert? Do you know of records or research techniques she could try? If you think you can help True with her research, you can contact her at her website or via her Twitter account @MyTrueRoots, or over at familyhistoriespodcast.com's contact form.

In the meantime, True is keen to accept Andrew's offer of help, but her enthusiasm might just cause a bit of a problem...

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Episode Credits 
Series Two, Episode Two  
Andrew Martin (Host, Producer) 
True Lewis (Guest) 
Show notes: familyhistoriespodcast.com  
©2021 The Family Histories Podcast.

In this first episode of Series Two - The Tailor, host Andrew Martin talks to genealogist and former-colleague Ruth Bramley about how she got hooked on tracing her Jewish family history, her passion for re-creating history, and how she traced the history of an object known as 'Alice'.

Relatively Speaking: Woolf Bernstock
Ruth tells the story of her 2x Great Grandfather Woolf Bernstock who was born in Warsaw, Poland in about 1844. By 1876, working as a tailor, he, his wife and family moved to Portsmouth, England to start a new life.

The Brick Wall: Milly Mattenburg
Ruth has been struggling to break her research brick wall, which is her Great Grandmother Milly Mattenburg (later Schneider), born about 1866.

Whilst Ruth knows her whereabouts from 10th June 1883 onwards, when she gives birth to son Harry in London, UK, it's her earlier life that remains a mystery. She married Lipman Schneider in about 1882 (if the date on the 1911 census is to be believed), and her place of birth is given simply as 'Russia'.

Ruth wonders whether Milly was born in Białystok (now in Poland), and knows that her Hebrew name was Malka. Her headstone from 1915 notes her father as having been Awigdor or Avigdor. Where was Milly born and did she have any siblings?

If you think that you can help Ruth with solving her brick wall, head over to our show notes and send her a message via our contact form at familyhistoriespodcast.com.

Andrew offers Ruth some help to overcome her brick wall, but she seems rather too keen....

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Episode Credits:
Series Two, Episode One
Andrew Martin (Host, Producer)
Ruth Bramley (Guest)
John Spike (Sándor Petőfi)
Show notes: familyhistoriespodcast.com
©2021 The Family Histories Podcast

The trailer for Series Two of The Family Histories Podcast is here! That means only one thing - Series Two is imminent.

Subscribe for free now to receive the first episode of the series as soon as it is released on 2nd November 2021.

Keep up with the latest news at: familyhistoriespodcast.com, or join us over on Twitter at @FamilyHistPod.

In this little bonus Series One episode - The Epilogue, we rejoin Episode 7 guest Pam Smith, and 19th century Hungarian revolutionary and poet Sándor Petőfi, just as an explosion leaves them both in danger in the garage, and Andrew has suddenly vanished....

Credits:
Series One, Episode Eight
Andrew Martin (Host/Producer),
Pam Smith (Guest),
John Spike (Sándor Petőfi).
More at: familyhistoriespodcast.com 

In the seventh and final episode of this series (sorry folks!), host Andrew Martin meets Pam Smith, a family historian who went from hobbyist, to professional genealogist, and then to local historian. We'll find out how she made those moves, how she ended up co-founding the research site NameAndPlace.com, and her dual loves of North Yorkshire and heraldry.

Relatively Speaking:
Pam's choice of life story is that of her Great Great Uncle, Albert 'Ginger' Goodwin. Ginger left the collieries of Yorkshire behind and headed to Canada where he advanced his political activism until he met an untimely death. Pam will tell his incredible story, and his legacy that is still very much felt in the communities he stood up for even now, more than 100 years after his death.

The Brick Wall:
The hunt is on for Sir Richard Etherington of Rillington, North Yorkshire, England, as Pam explains her current Brick Wall. Aside from owning land and collecting his knighthood in 1603, it's his connection to other Etheringtons in the area that is baffling Pam. Do you have a connection to a Knight? Does he connect to the others? What are his origins?

Pam agrees to Andrew's offer of help, but something is about to go very wrong indeed...

Credits:
Series 1, Episode 7.
Andrew Martin (Host, producer), Pam Smith (Guest), Eliot Lees, John Spike, Meg Spencer-Thomas (Additional sound production).
Here's the Episode Show Notes.
Show site: familyhistoriespodcast.com 

Host Andrew Martin is joined by David Ryan, an Irish family historian who discovered his passion for genealogy after studying for his MA in Medieval History. He'll be telling us how he made this transition, the challenges of researching family history in Ireland, and what it's like to work for Ancestry as one of their team of professional genealogists.

Relatively Speaking: 
David has chosen to tell the life story of his Great Great Grandfather John Hyland. He'll explain the hardship that John was born into at the end of the devastating famine in the early 1850s, and the events that have since shaped Ireland in the 20th century - most of which were revealed by a chance discovery of a record in The National Folklore Collection.

The Brick Wall: 
Family rumour has always said that David's paternal and maternal 3x Great Grandmothers - Honora and Bridget Williams, were sisters. They are both born in the 1820s, and both married in the 1840s, all in the village of Ballyporeen in County Tipperary, Ireland. 

Were they sisters, or is it just a case of coincidence? Can you help David solve this old family story?

David isn't sure whether Andrew's offer of help will come to much, but he's in for a surprise...

Credits: 
Series 1, Episode 6. 
Andrew Martin (host, producer), David Ryan (guest), Eliot Lees (additional sound production).
More info: https://familyhistoriespodcast.com

In this episode, host Andrew Martin meets genealogist Valmay Young to find out how she got into researching her far-flung family tree. We'll also hear about what it's like to work for a county archives, and her work with the Families In British India Society (FIBIS).

Relatively Speaking
Valmay chooses her 3x Gt Grandfather, Richard Sheridan Wardley. As you'll hear, he sounds like a complicated man, with regular vanishing acts, trips to the USA, his attempt to publish someone else's work, and more seriously, posing as a medical doctor. In the process, Valmay also quashed a family rumour about Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

The Brick Wall
Fred Beckwith is Valmay's 2x Gt Grandfather, and he's proving to be a mystery for her. Aside from his marriage to Selina Woolf at West Ham Registry Office in 1882, and his death in 1939, there seems to be no other trace of him. Where was his father Henry? Why is he so vague about addresses? Is Fred the link to Valmay's rumoured Romany ancestry?

Andrew tries to help Valmay with her breakthrough, but they're not alone in the garage....


Credits:
Series One, Episode Five.
Andrew Martin (Host, producer), Valmay Young (Guest), Eliot Lees and John Spike (Additional Sound Production).
Show notes: https://familyhistoriespodcast.com/2021/06/29/s01ep05-the-quack-with-valmay-young/
More info at https://familyhistoriespodcast.com