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Can you undertake genealogical research in late 19th century Jerusalem, from a desk at home in Britain? This is the story of an unusually productive attempt to do just that. www.tree-sleuths.co.uk Why? The later 19th century was a difficult time for Jews in Eastern European countries like Romania and Russia, with widespread pogroms and the introduction of increasingly hostile laws effectively depriving them of their livelihoods and forcing them to move elsewhere. It had long

Where it all started A few months ago, while I was exploring my mother's ancestors, I discovered that one of them was a rating in the Royal Navy in 1760. This blog post is about what I discovered as I tried to find out a little more about him. As you will learn, this research took an unexpected turn. This all began when I looked at the Marriage Register for Stoke Damerel (just outside Plymouth), Devon, for September 1760. There it recorded the marriage of Nicholas Phillips,

Friday, 20 November 2020, was the 75th anniversary of the start of the International Tribunal in Nuremberg, usually called the Nuremberg Trials. These were so important to the future of Europe that I want to tell the story of one man. Birth Just over 27 years before this, in 1918, a boy was born in Alexandria, Egypt. His parents were Irish and Romanian by birth. His father’s family had come from rural Ireland in Queen’s County (now County Laois), migrating over generations to