My first introduction to Family History probably started at the age of 10, when as a school homework project we were asked to draw our family trees. The idea was to show brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, nephews, etc. The problem was, that I had a very small family and had none of these, so my resulting tree only consisted of parents and grandparents. Compared to everyone else’s, mine was sadly lacking.
My mother (pictured below) was also embarrassed about our lack of relatives, so took this tree from me, saying “There must be more to our family tree than this”. So she started searching, and didn’t stop for the next 40 years.
In the process, she became a founding member of both the Wiltshire and Devon Family History Societies, obtained a grant for transcribing the 1851 census for Wiltshire (no-one had ever attempted anything like this before), transcribed many Parish Registers, personally undertook a project to produce a Marriage Index for Wiltshire, completed a University degree by correspondence course resulting in a Doctorate in Family History studies, became a Fellow of the Society of Genealogists, and founded the business which we still run today.
As such, we have had good training, and we are deeply grateful to our founder for this.
David Carter
In the process, she became a founding member of both the Wiltshire and Devon Family History Societies, obtained a grant for transcribing the 1851 census for Wiltshire (no-one had ever attempted anything like this before), transcribed many Parish Registers, personally undertook a project to produce a Marriage Index for Wiltshire, completed a University degree by correspondence course resulting in a Doctorate in Family History studies, became a Fellow of the Society of Genealogists, and founded the business which we still run today.
As such, we have had good training, and we are deeply grateful to our founder for this.
David Carter
Why are we called Nimrod ?
Our business name comes from two sources:
Firstly from the Biblical ‘Nimrod’ (Genesis, Ch.10, v.9) who was described as a mighty hunter – we are also hunters for your ancestors.
Secondly from our direct ancestor Nimrod John Dening (born Winsham 1838) and his father Nimrod Dening (born Axminster 1803) - we rather liked this unusual name and used it as the name of our business. The photograph below shows his drinking mug.
Firstly from the Biblical ‘Nimrod’ (Genesis, Ch.10, v.9) who was described as a mighty hunter – we are also hunters for your ancestors.
Secondly from our direct ancestor Nimrod John Dening (born Winsham 1838) and his father Nimrod Dening (born Axminster 1803) - we rather liked this unusual name and used it as the name of our business. The photograph below shows his drinking mug.
Sir Richard Grenville
Among our numerous successes over the years, was being able to establish the date of birth and exact birthplace of the celebrated explorer Sir Richard Grenville. We now know that he was born in Bideford on 15th June 1542 on the site of No.1 Bridge Street, which was the location of the 16th century Manor House of the Grenvilles. For the full report on this research, please click here. A plaque now marks the site of his birthplace. |
Who Do You Think You Are?
We have worked on a number of WDYTYA cases over the years, for both the UK and Australian TV. We recently had the pleasure of helping Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna) discover his connection to a Royal Scandal, and set him off on his journey to discover more. Sadly he died before the programme went out, but it was a pleasure to work with him, on what was his last full TV appearance. |
Last updated - June 2023