In the General Register Office (GRO) birth indexes once you get to the end of each quarter you can often find a small separate list of individuals, all alone and unable to be processed in the same manner as the other births because their names are unknown.

These are foundlings. The people who come after Z.

Foundlings listed in December 1881

Input a name like William Young into Ancestry or another website where you can view the original image of the birth index. Keep scrolling through until you get to the last page, where the surnames beginning with Z are indexed.

At the very end you should find a small group of forlorn babies whose parents felt the best option would be for their child to have a better life without them.

They were known as foundlings because they were found most often on the doorsteps of a parish church or somewhere else where they were certain to be found quickly. They were usually named after the place where they were baptised, the street where they were found or sometimes after the person who found them.

Naming foundlings

So children baptised in the parish church of St John were named John, but as shown below others such as Elizabeth Saturday take the name of the day of the week, and I guess that Julia Fawkes was found on 5 November 1881.

Over the past few years I've been asked on several occasions to help with research into foundlings, twice on behalf of foundlings who are desperate to find some biological connection or simply some answers to the daily question of "who am I and where do I come from?"

Each time I find myself hoping that this will be the time where I can actually use my research skills to help. But so far I haven't been able to help at all. Maybe by publishing their stories in this blog I can help in a small way.

Foundling Hospital

Ioma Jones contacted me from her home in Ireland to ask for help tracing further information relating to her great grandmother. Family legend was that she was left on a doorstep in Cwmbach in Glamorgan but unfortunately Ioma has such few details it's hard to even pin down the correct birth entry for her grandmother Eleanor Evans, later the wife of Harry Russell. Ioma knows they were buried in Brithdir so perhaps someone in that area might know more. Do get in touch.

For once it might well have been easier to find Ioma's great-grandmother if she had been born in London as she may well have been one of the 27,000 children who passed through the doors of the Foundling Hospital between 1739 and 1954. Yes, that's not a typo - it does say 1954!

The archives relating to the Foundling Hospital can be searched in the London Metropolitan Archives, although I fear that that is where the family history trail will end for those who have a foundling ancestor.

But what if you were a modern day foundling?

Meet the modern-day foundlings

In 1960 David was found wrapped in a rainbow coloured blanket on the doorstep of a second floor flat in Golders Green. To read more about David's story visit his blog therainbowbaby.blogspot.co.uk.

David and his partner Julie have searched long and hard into every possible lead including testing his DNA. The results pointed to Scottish borders ancestry on the male side, but with no close matches (his DNA analysis is 90% Western European, 10% SE Asian). With time it is possible that someone who knows something about his story will decide to come forward or the DNA database throws up a match.

I was asked to get involved because there was a potential Welsh link, albeit a very tenuous one. A Welsh man, Richard Hamer who was born in Rhayder in 1899, lived in a neighbouring flat to where David was abandoned. The aim was (or is) to trace the descendants of Richard Hamer and ask them to provide a DNA sample. Even if this only results in that family being eliminated from the list of possibles it would mean a great deal to David.

Searching for biological heritage

In April 2011, BBC Three broadcast a documentary about a baby boy found in 1986 at Gatwick airport. Steve Hydes, now 25, was found as a 10-day-old baby on the floor of a ladies toilet in Gatwick airport. I was asked to try and help find his mother. I like a challenge but this task needed a magic wand!

Steve's DNA was compared to a global genetic databank of millions of individuals and from this, a number of individuals who are Steve's seventh or sixth or even, in one case, fifth cousin were identified. For most of us this would be too distant to be of any real interest but if you have no knowledge of your biological heritage then I imagine that a fifth cousin might feel like finding a twin.

In 2000 Germany introduced 'baby-drops' where mothers could anonymously leave babies they were unable to look after themselves in the knowledge that they would be properly cared for. Now a network of some 80 'hatches' exist across Germany and similar schemes exist in Japan, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Clearly having a foundling in your family is not only a thing of the past and is certainly much more that the famous fictional foundling, Oliver Twist.

I was reading it while visiting my mum recently. One day, while having coffee in the garden, we tried to make our own A-Z of family history. Isn't that what all normal families do on bank holidays?

A-C

We quickly started with A for ancestry, adoption and archives. B for births, burials and baptisms. C for cousins, census, cemetery, coroner's records, civil registration, criminal registers, and how about Crockfords? It's a clerical directory, so you can identify churches and contact the current incumbent.

Churchyards and cemeteries can often get quite overgrown!

Getting a little carried away we imagined publishing a checklist for people who have just started their family history, to help them ensure that they are aware of the vast variety of types of resources available.

D-E

D for deaths, deeds, diaries. E for electoral registers, emigration, employment records and enumerators (don't forget most were English speaking and wrote down anglicised versions of Welsh names).

F

F for family history societies and family history, fairs (of which there are plenty over the summer months) and foundlings and Familysearch.org; the home of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a vast collection of genealogical records that includes the names of more than three billion deceased people.

G

G for Genes Reunited, General Registrer Office (GRO), Guild of One Name Studies obviously, but perhaps not so obvious is Gathering the Jewels, a site containing 30,000 images of objects, books, letters, aerial photographs and other items from museums, archives and libraries throughout Wales.

H-I

H for heraldry, hearth tax and human error! I is for inquest, immigration, indexes and specifically the International Genealogical Index (IGI) which can be searched free via FamilySearch.org.

J

And then we started to struggle. J is for..? Any suggestions welcome.

K-L

K was only for kilts and knights until kith and kin popped into my mind. L is for Latin, land taxes and libraries. If you have time this summer why not take the long and windy road and pay a visit to the stunning National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. Even if you don't find an ancestor you can enjoy the exhibitions, the café and the views.

M-N

M was easier: murderers, mariners, military, marriages, monumental inscriptions, maps, memorials and don't forget your magnifying glass! N has to be newspapers but don't underestimate the power of a note pinned to a notice board.

Janet Street-Porter trying her hand at her great grandfather's occupation of sett maker

O-P

O for obituaries, occupations, orphanages, but you must never forget oral history. We were overwhelmed with options for P - parish, probate, photographs, ports, pensions, passports, patronymics (the system in Wales whereby individuals were identified by the name of their father, deserving of its own blog post to fully explain it) and don't forget your pencil (always preferred when working in archives).

Q

For Q we quickly quashed quaker, quirky, questions, quotes, quills, and even the Queen and settled on quarters (civil registration events are recorded in quarters and so a birth in November 1912 might not show up until the March quarter of 1913).

R

R for royalty (why is it that people would rather have a murderer than a royal in their family tree?) and for religion, crucial if you are searching parish registers before 1837.

S-T

S for second cousins (the issue of your grandparents' siblings), schools, street directories, surnames and the Society of Genealogists. T for tithe maps, transcriptions and the National Archives at Kew if you fancy a trip to London (best left until after the Olympics perhaps).

U-V

And then we really, really struggled. U is for urchins, university alumni and uniforms (there are people who specialise in identifying military and other uniforms). V for vicar, verger and votes (from 1918 women aged over 30 could vote, this was lowered to 21 in 1928 for both sexes and again in 1969 from 21 to 18).

Donny Osmond gets to wear the white gloves at Cyfartha Castle

W

W for workhouse, wills, window taxes and Archives Wales, an online catalogue of over 7,000 collections of historical records in the holdings of 21 archives in Wales. And those white gloves you get asked to wear when looking at old precious documents to help preserve them, which make you feel privileged and have the magical power of turning the moment into slow motion (or is that just me?).

X-Z

X marks the spot where your illiterate ancestor signed their name. Y is for year of birth; always to be taken with a pinch of salt and Z, well Z is the end of the alphabet.

But unlike coming to the end of the alphabet it isn't possible to get to the end of your ancestry. No matter how hard you try there will always be an elusive person or record that is just beyond your reach. However, never give up on because new records go online every week and errors are constantly being corrected so you never know.

But it appears that I am not as thorough as I should be, and I am clearly failing to practise what I preach.

I hereby solemnly confess to having found some images on my computer. I'm talking about photographs of someone's ancestors and other valuable family documents, which I should have put into the correct folder immediately after scanning. Obviously I forgot and now I can't remember. Worse still it seems that neither can my computer!

Arthur Ridley Cottam

Is there an Arthur Ridley Cottam in your family tree? Would you like to have him back (since I know for sure that he doesn't belong in my family tree)?

Arthur Ridley Cottam

I know Arthur comes from Wales. He was part of a family tree that I have researched for BBC Radio Wales' Look Up Your Genes during the first series in 2002. I know this only because very cleverly the computer has saved the date that I scanned the image 21/11/2002 within a folder marked "BBC LUYG Roadshow".

I can tell that he was a fisherman (maybe I should have been a police officer!). He might belong to a family who lived near the sea and since we had fantastic Look Up Your Genes roadshow events in both Barry and Aberystwyth that year maybe he comes from one of those towns.

Start naming the people in your photographs

If like me you are frustrated whilst it's raining why not sit down one afternoon with a pencil, surrounded by your old photographs and the people you love, and go through each picture. Make sure you write clearly who it is in the photograph, where and when it was taken, and whether it might have been of special importance.

It doesn't matter whether it is a recent glossy digital photo or an old dog-eared sepia image retrieved from the attic. What matters is that the individuals are identified before the details are lost forever.

Which brings me onto my second confession.

In the summer of 2005 myself and Charlotte Evans went to the flea market in Abergavenny for Look Up Your Genes. The idea was that we purchased a few choice items with familial historical interest and reunited them with someone from the original family.

It was a great idea in theory, but in practice it proved a lot harder, especially since the items we chose surrendered few clues.

While spring-cleaning my computer I also found this misfiled postcard. It cost just a few pence and we chose it because the words seemed to bring alive the spirit of the time.

Front of post card

9th August 1918, Portsmouth

Dearest Lil,

Just a line to say I am having ripping good time. Trusting you enjoyed yourself, which I have no doubt. I went to a dance last night. I can tell you Dear there were plenty of sailors and midies. I should very much like you to be here with me as times are jolly......ta ta for now, with love Gladys xxxx

It's addressed to Miss L Wilson, No 10 Montjoy Street, Newport, Mon.

The postcard was obviously designed to promote daylight saving and even the short poem and drawing on the front seems to evoke a sense of making the most of any precious time available during the last few months of World War One.

I wanted to reunite the postcard with Lil Wilson's family. To return it to them, and for them to have the chance to cherish it and remember Lil fondly. To think of her racing down to Portsmouth to join her friend Gladys and dance the night away on the arm of a sailor. Perhaps they even have a photo of Lil. Maybe she married a sailor or that could just be my imagination running away with me.

So, come rain or shine I know what I must do over the next couple of weeks. It's not so much of a punishment for losing them on my computer, more of a homework-type challenge really.

I must find Arthur Ridley Cottam and Lil Wilson's families and return their items.
I must find Arthur Ridley Cottam and Lil Wilson's families and return their items.
I must find Arthur Ridley Cottam and Lil Wilson's families and return their items.

Keith Matthews from Workington had lost touch with his nieces in Wales after the death of his brother Terry in 2001. While moving house they had lost various important details, including the addresses of his brother's daughters.

Keith was able to tell me his brother's age and the name of his sister in law. I quickly checked the marriage indexes and found the entry, which meant I could also check the spelling of her name and maiden name. Then using the birth indexes I was able to confirm the full names of their daughters.

Luckily, each of the girls was also given a middle name and having this additional initial made it easier to determine which Matthews was the right one when checking the marriage indexes.

After that it was simply a matter of examining the current electoral registers and sending them a letter to ask if they wanted to be put in touch with their uncle and if they knew that he had moved house and was looking for to be reunited.

Within a few days three of the nieces had been in touch and were amazed to learn that Keith was looking for them, since as far as they knew they weren't lost! All that was left was to reunite them.

The producer asked Keith if he would ring the studio while I was live on air to explain what he wanted and why it was important to him to find his nieces.

Unbeknown to Keith, the producer had also set up one of his nieces to be on another line and so we were able to reunite him with his long lost family.

It still brings a lump to my throat now. Afterwards listeners were tweeting to ask us to stop making them cry in the car!

If you are looking for someone here are some tips on what to do next:

Full name

Make sure this is spelt correctly if possible, or write down all the different ways of spelling the various name combinations.

When searching on databases most will accept a wildcard or * in place of an unknown letter... so if you don't know whether Stephen could also be spelt Steven then try simply entering Ste*en. If the person you are looking for has a really unusual first name or surname then try just using that and leave the other details blank.

Age

What year were they born? Do you know their birthday? Are they older or younger than you or the same age as your siblings? If you know their date of birth you can search the death indexes on ancestry.co.uk without entering a surname. Then you could order the death certificate from gro.gov.uk to see who registered the death and write to them.

Address

What was their last known address? What year was this?

As long as it wasn't during World War Two there will be old electoral registers you can access at the local archives or library, or you can ask a researcher to do this for you. This will give you the names of all the people of voting age living at that address. To find out where the archives and county record offices are located visit genuki.co.uk.

If you have a last known address then why not visit or write, enclosing an SAE and a plea for the current occupier to forward it or pass it to the person who has lived in their street the longest or even to the estate agent.

For searches of current electoral registers or for those times when you don't know where they live then try using 192.com.

Family

Can you recall more personal details about their family? What about their siblings, parents and even cousins; all of whom might know where the missing person is. Tracing males is often easier since the surname does not change.

Locating the deaths of parents or grandparents can also help and often details can be found on online obituaries such as iannounce.co.uk. Often a distant member of the family will have posted a family tree on a site such as Genes Reunited. You will need names to be spelt correctly and ages known and the best place to do this is on ancestry.co.uk (which is free if you pop into your local library) or via freebmd.org.uk.

Adoption

If your request involves adoption then please make sure you have received the necessary counselling from social services or similar and then seek professional advice from a relevant specialised organisation like norcap.org.uk, afteradoption.org.uk or perhaps salvationarmy.org.uk.

Abroad

If you think they have moved abroad then you can try international phone directories via infobel.com or try emailing a local library asking for details of local newspapers or radio stations and then contact them with a brief plea. Make sure to send a photo if you have one but only give your email address and mobile number.

General advice

Keep trying. New databases keep being added and details being updated almost daily on the internet. Make certain that it is easy for them to find you too.

Please remember if you post a message on the internet or join an organisation then make sure they have your current email address so messages will get passed onto you. Keep entering their name into Google etc and don't give up.

As I expected there was a lot of waiting around but lots to watch, and then finally about 30 minutes before the start of the programme there was a frantic flurry of activity. I was rushed into make-up and sat next to Louis Theroux who was chatting to Jessica Hynes, and soon I felt like I was ready for the red carpet. Instead I was heading for the red curtain in the corner of the room, where I got changed into my chosen outfit... chosen so as not to clash with the vivid lime green sofa!

Cat Whiteaway and Alex James

I'd already pre-recorded a film about a reunion and so all I had to do was talk about the research and how you can start looking for people who you've lost touch with.

A long time ago I'd been asked if I could find Doreen Hambridge who had been evacuated from London to Carmarthenshire during World War Two. The family she was sent to lived in Four Roads near Kidwelly and they had always wondered what kind of life little Doreen had led and whether she had fond memories of her time as an evacuee.

The family could remember that little Doreen was less than 10 years old when she arrived, just after Fred Harries and Elizabeth Doreen Bowen had married in 1942. Incredibly they also remember that it was a Sunday afternoon when the bus arrived at the village green. They went down to pick a child and chose little Doreen, exhausted from her overnight adventure but clinging to her brother Fred, who was taken in by the Harris's aunt at the post office in the village.

Searching the indexes of births on www.freebmd.org.uk for girls called Doreen Hambridge born after 1930 resulted in just three results.

Births March 1930
Hambridge Doreen Haddon Hendon

Births March 1932
Hambridge Doreen Burrows Marylebone

Births September 1938
Hambridge Doreen L Munday Brentford

To try and establish which one was the correct one I knew that I had to search for a brother called Fred by cross referencing against the mother's maiden name.

There were no births entered for a brother called Fred for the Doreen born in 1930 with the mother's maiden name of Haddon, nor for the one born in 1932 with the mother's maiden name of Burrows.

But for the last entry in 1938 there was an entry for a Frederick W T Hambridge born in 1936 also in Brentford, crucially with the mother's maiden name of Munday.

Just to be certain of my facts I quickly searched and found the marriage of Doreen's parents Frederick W T Hambridge and Lilian E Munday in 1936 in Brentford. After that it was simply a matter of repeating the processes; searching for any marriages of a Doreen L Hambridge and then for any subsequent children.

Luckily Doreen had married David Jeff in 1955 and they had four children. So I had a nice unusual surname to work with and four extra chances at finding her.

In my second stroke of luck one of Doreen's daughters had posted her family tree on Genes Reunited and so I sent her a message and waited patiently for a reply. The eventual outcome was an emotional reunion between two women aged 91 and 74 who hadn't seen each other for nearly 70 years.

If I hadn't had such unusual names to work with or if fewer details were known then I could have contacted the Evacuees Reunion Association or asked in the local studies section of the nearest library or perhaps located a local history group or family history society to ask their advice. And if all that had failed I would have written a little article and sent it off to the local newspapers with a photo and a plea for help.

I can't promise an emotional reunion every time but you never know.

Known as Commander Harold G Lowe R.N.R at the time of his death in 1944, he was probably better known as 5th Mate HG Lowe, survivor of the Titanic. But to others he was simply "the one who went back".

Archives often contain unusual and poignant documents, but they are not the only source of information and this employment card along with a photograph of Harold Lowe was located on a CD titled Titanic - The True Story. Vital to my search was the fact that it also confirms his date of birth.

The third of seven children, Harold Godfrey Lowe was born on 21 November 1882 at his home Bryn Lupus, Llanrhos in Conway. Since this meant he was missing from the 1881 census it was necessary to purchase his birth certificate to confirm his parents' names. George Edward Lowe and Emma Harriett Quick had married in 1877 in her home town of Liverpool.

Harold's decision to go to sea was perhaps due to his geographical location rather that one based on family tradition, since his father was a jeweller and goldsmith, as were as his grandfather George Lowe and his great-grandfather Edward Lowe who originated from Chester.

By the time of the 1891 census the eight-year-old Harold and his family had moved to the Castle Hotel in Llanddanwg, Merionethshire, where his father's occupation is listed as "landscape and cattle painter" and his mother as the hotel manageress.

Just 12 months before that fateful night in April 1912, Harold can be found on the 1911 census listed as a boarder at 7 College View, Bootle at the age of 27, where his occupation is given as Master Mariner.

Working for the BBC means that I sometimes gain access to the most unusual places, and the time I spent with the original Titanic documents was the most treasured. Behind the scenes at the National Archives at Kew, in a small room with two nominated members of staff to act as security, we were very privileged to be able to turn the pages created by the White Star staff in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster.

I remember the vast lists of the names of the missing and the survivors scribbled in pencil, with many mistakes crossed through and roughly erased. This simple list projected a real sense of the urgent need to know who was alive and who had died.

By a cruel twist of coincidence, while Harold famously survived the sinking of the Titanic, two of his brothers tragically drowned in separate incidents. According to details published in his obituary in the North Wales Weekly News on 12 May 1944 it seems young Harold also had a lucky escape while out punting with his father. When their punt capsized at Barmouth he had to swim to shore in his boots.

Harold was linked to various other deeds of bravery during his naval service; one that stands out is of Harold jumping overboard to rescue a man while suffering from a poisoned arm himself. Naturally, this type of detail is much more valued than any amount of facts obtained from a death certificate or will.

Crucially, the obituary also provided the names of the chief mourners. These included his widow Ellen and details of his two children Florence and Harold, who was abroad serving in India but whose fiancée, Miss Marguerite Davies, attended on his behalf.

The obituary ends with the simple words "his coffin was draped with the Union Jack. On it were Commander Lowe's hat, medals and sword".

Read Titanic: Victims from Wales of 1912 liner tragedy on BBC Wales News.

View the rise and fall of the Titanic animated timeline on the BBC History website.

Cat Whiteaway joins Chris Evans and Alex Jones on The One Show tonight, Friday 13 April, 7pm, BBC One.

Known as Commander Harold G Lowe R.N.R at the time of his death in 1944, he was probably better known as 5th Mate H.G. Lowe, survivor of the Titanic but to others he was simply "the one who went back".

Archives often contain unusual and poignant documents, but they are not the only source of information and this employment card along with a photograph of Harold Lowe was located on a CD titled " Titanic - The True Story". Vital to my search was the fact that it also confirms his date of birth.

The third of seven children Harold Godfrey Lowe was born on November 21st 1882 at his home Bryn Lupus, Llanrhos in Conway. Since this meant he was missing from the 1881 census it was necessary to purchase his birth certificate to confirm his parents' names; George Edward Lowe and Emma Harriett Quick who married in 1877 in her home town of Liverpool.

Harold's decision to go to sea was perhaps due to his geographical location rather that one based on family tradition, since his father was a jeweller and goldsmith, as were as his grandfather George Lowe and his great -grandfather Edward Lowe who originated from Chester.

By the time of the 1891 census an 8-year-old Harold and his family had moved to the Castle Hotel in Llanddanwg, Merionethshire, where his father's occupation is listed as Landscape & Cattle Painter, whilst his mother is the hotel manageress.

Just 12 months before that fateful night in April 1912 Harold can be found on the 1911 census listed as a boarder at 7 College View, Bootle at the age of 27, where his occupation is given as a Master Mariner.

Working for the BBC means that I sometimes gain access to the most unusual places, and of all the documents I've viewed the time I spent with the original Titanic documents was the most treasured. Behind the scenes at the National Archives at Kew, in a small room with two nominated members of staff to act as security we were very privileged to be able to turn the pages created by the White Star staff in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster...and don't worry of course I was wearing white cotton gloves to protect the pages for perpetuity.

I remember the vast lists of the names of the missing and the survivors scribbled in pencil, with many mistakes crossed through and roughly erased. This simple list projected a real sense of the urgent need to know who was alive and who had died.

By a cruel twist of coincidence whilst Harold famously survived the sinking of the Titanic two of his brothers tragically drowned in separate incidents. According to details published in his obituary in the North Wales Weekly News on 12 May 1944, it seems young Harold also had a lucky escape whilst out punting with his father, when their punt capsized at Barmouth and he had to swim to shore in his boots.

It seems that Harold was linked to various other deeds of bravery during his naval service; one that stands out is of Harold jumping overboard to rescue a Chinaman whilst suffering from a poisoned arm himself. Naturally, this type of detail is much more valued than any amount of facts obtained from a death certificate or will.

Crucially for the family history enthusiast the obituary also provided the names of the chief mourners who included his widow Ellen and details of his two children Florence and Harold, who was abroad serving in India but whose fiancee, Miss Marguerite Davies, attended on his behalf.

The obituary ends with the simple words " his coffin was draped with the Union Jack. On it were Commander Lowe's hat, medals and sword".

Find out more about the Titanic on the BBC History website.

Read 'Titanic: Victims from Wales of 1912 liner tragedy' on BBC Wales News'.

And all his life, all that Ron Morgan could do was to imagine an image.

Among the chaos caused by World War Two, Ron Morgan was born in 1942 - before his biological parents had the chance to marry. This upset his maternal grandmother who was a captain in the Salvation Army and she felt it necessary to urge her unmarried daughter to give up the baby for adoption.

Baby Ron did not travel far though and was adopted by his maternal aunt and raised by her alongside the rest of her children in south Wales.

Adoption papers

Aware that he was treated differently but not knowing quite why, at the age of 19 Ron found an attaché case in a wardrobe which contained his official adoption papers. Although his original birth certificate contained no details of his father, the adoption papers encouraged the use of Ivor as a middle name and provided the minimum details of his putative father, "Private Ivor Griffiths of Swansea, deceased."

After some painful question and answer sessions with his adoptive parents Ron learned the basic facts behind his adoption.

GRIFFITHS, IVOR
Rank: Private
Service No: 3971373
Date of Death: 02/10/1944
Age:30
Regiment/Service: Welch Regiment

1st Bn. Grave Reference I, B, 16.Cemetery: FORLI WAR CEMETERY
Additional Information: Son of James and Esther Griffiths, of Morriston, Glamorgan

His birth father was Ivor Griffiths, who died in 1944 in Italy while serving with the Welch Regiment. At the age of two, with no husband and an illegitimate child, his birth mother made the decision that Ron would be better raised by her sister.

Several years later Ron managed to persuade the MOD to release Ivor Griffiths' campaign medals to him. With his authority I applied for Ivor's full World War Two service record, which is available to the next of kin providing that there is proof of death.

After paying £30 and waiting patiently for many weeks, we learned that service records rarely hold photographs. The details on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website confirmed that Ivor Griffiths was aged 30 years at the time of his death. Born in 1914 this meant that he would not be living with his family on the 1911 census, but this did not matter as his parents' names were also provided by the CWGC.

Searching the 1911 census

Knowing his parents' names, it was simply a matter of matching him to his parents on the 1911 census and searching for any siblings; all of which is much easier after 1911 when the mother's maiden name was added to the birth and marriage indexes, making it simpler to cross reference details.

I arranged a trip to West Glamorgan Archives based in the civic centre in Swansea, as well as the central library. This meant that I could access electoral registers and school admission registers.

So the Griffithses' family tree evolved, revealing that Ivor was one of nine children; fortunately increasing Ron's chances of having cousins. The school registers even carefully noted that Ivor's sister Bertha was an eczema sufferer, whilst the electoral registers indicated that another sister Hannah preferred to use the name Nancy.

It's easy to get carried away when searching and I often find myself building a whole family tree while trying to resolve the original query.

Newspaper search

Newspaper cutting with Ivor's photo

Over lunch in the café overlooking Swansea bay it occurred to me that the main source of information during World War Two was newspapers and that I'd often seen photographs of young men and women in their uniforms printed in their local paper to announce their ultimate sacrifice.

Knowing that Ivor Griffiths died on 2 October 1944 I loaded up the microfilm for that month and year and whizzed through the Western Mail to the appropriate week. Only to find nothing. Not a mention.

Utterly deflated I started to rewind the film before realising that it was also a tradition to print a photograph of someone when they went missing.

And so, page after page, I slowly worked backwards, trawling each day carefully and eventually found Ron's father Ivor. The details in the text matched those names on the 1911 census and the name of the street also matched the entries in the electoral registers.

It's a faded old photograph, not quite in focus and not easy to reproduce in any quality, but none of this meant any the less to Ron.

I spoke to Ron this week to check he was happy for me to share his story and he told me that since we last met his daughter has taken on the challenge and just last week he met up with yet another paternal cousin who has more photos of his father and more memories to share.

Memorials made from stone are of particular interest to geologists and environmental scientists but obviously also to family historians.

By starting with the inscription on the gravestone there are a vast number of resources that can be accessed for further information about the person who lies beneath the memorial.

Death certificates

The date of death on the gravestone can be confirmed by purchasing the death certificate at a cost of £9.25 from the local register office or via www.gro.gov.uk. This document will confirm cause of death and age, but more importantly it will also provide the last address of the deceased, an informant (usually a close blood relative) and occupation.

Once date of death has been established the burial registers can be checked to see whether there are other persons buried in the same grave (who may not be mentioned on the gravestone).

Local newspaper archives

Archives of the local newspapers can be also be searched in the library to obtain copies of obituaries and these often provide a whole outline of the person's life, or at the very least a funeral notice will have been posted which lists family members.

Probate indexes

By searching the probate indexes held at the respective probate registry it is simple to determine whether the deceased left a will, which can be ordered at a cost of £6. Wills provide a wealth of information relating to the deceased's family, sometimes including illegitimate children and details of any property owned. Once the basic details of the deceased are gathered then the family tree can be built using the census returns, indexes of birth, death and marriages and electoral registers.

Gallantry awards and honours

It is also possible to check for gallantry awards and honours received following military or civilian acts. Other military records can be researched at The National Archives in Kew (www.tna.gov.uk) and if located these can provide further details of their next-of-kin and add extra details, such as vaccinations, tattoos, and information about their experiences during training.

Criminal records

If the deceased was linked to a crime in any way then an examination of the coroners' records, court assizes and websites such as www.oldbaileyonline.co.uk will provide all the intimate details that will help to ensure that the story is complete and the programme a success.

All this from one just headstone!

When I was researching for the BBC One Wales programme 'Dead Interesting People' several years ago, I spent some time in churchyards all over Wales and there are several which stick in my mind even though eventually their stories were rejected for being too sad.

Louisa Maud Evans

In Cathays cemetery in Cardiff there is a memorial to Louisa Maud Evans, which forms part of their heritage trail (another clever idea to attract more people).

Louisa Maude Evans

Louisa was a young domestic servant with Hancock's circus who fell to her death during a freak ballooning accident during the Cardiff Exhibition of 1896. The inscription on the memorial describes the accident and offers a fitting epitaph for a young life tragically lost.

Eye-catching inscriptions

When I was at St Mary's Church in Mold there is an inscription which caught my eye, stopping me in my tracks and made me think about about this young man's incredible journey through life.

"In memory of Isaac Hughes formerly of Pwllmelyn. He was an adventurer at the gold mines in California where by an accident he lost both his eyes. He then returned home and resided at 22 New Street Mold. He died July 15th aged 39 years"

And in the same part of the churchyard is the headstone for John Corbett.

"Here lieth the body of John Corbett who was led by his pretended friends in Stockport near Manchester to a strange and dangerous place and thrown into the deep to be no more but in his life was honest and sincere. God's word was his guide and rule who departed this life Feb 22nd 1822 aged 25 years"

Gravestone of John Corbett

The inscription above tells just part of an incredible story and one which deserves to be fully researched. I really hope that anyone researching John Corbett's family history takes time to locate his grave and his headstone and doesn't simply rely on the indexes of deaths available on the internet which cannot possibly tell his sad story.

Given that I have now have the privilege of my very own BBC blog to share my research and pass on some research techniques this week I thought perhaps I might extend the concept to share some of the queries and see whether you can help.

For example, Myra in Caldicott wants to know whether her husband's grandmother Annie Amott was a traveller. She can't find her on any census return even though she has her birth certificate from 1874 in Bromsgrove. I've dug out the details of the Romany & Traveller Family History Society's annual fair on 21 July in Smethwick near Birmingham, and enjoyed learning that typical gypsy names included Noah, Sampson, Shadrack, Cinderella & Elijah; obviously that's where Emmerdale's Dingle family take their inspiration.

But so far Maureen from Pembrokeshire has had no such luck finding the marriage or death of her great grandmother Maria England who was born in 1864.

And Gloria from Tonypandy cannot find the marriage or even the maiden name for her great grandmother Elizabeth Martha Devereaux, even though she appears aged as Thomas' wife on the 1891 census aged 33 just after the birth of their son William in 1890.

There can't be many people with a name like Ivy Delphine Lloyd in their tree. If you have please let me know because she was the mother of Des from Newport and he's keen to find out more about his maternal family history. Ivy was born around 1910 near Abergavenny.

While I haven't yet started to look for any answers for Myra, Maureen, Gloria and Des, I couldn't help myself have a quick peek for Gareth from Treorchy. His great grandmother's name was Mary Lymla. But I cannot find a single Lymla entry on Ancestry, Genes Reunited, FreeBMD or even in the Guild of One Name Studies. I might try Findmypast next since their collection of overseas events is vast. If I still have no luck then perhaps Cyndi's List or posting a message on a blog - very handy if you happen to have your own blog!

If you are a Lymla or related to a Lymla or know what the name means or where it comes from then please get in touch.

Thanks to magnificent ever-evolving technology during the radio programmes people from all around the world can now send in queries via Facebook, email, telephone, text and Twitter (or should that be tweet... I never am sure quite how one is supposed to conjugate such new verbs).

The texts are good fun trying to decipher - "we r looking 4 our gr8 granda's family history can u help thanx Linda Jones - but the queries are obviously quite hard to solve without further communication!

And finally I have some very exciting news to share. This week I've been filming a reunion story for The One Show which should broadcast around Easter. Watch this space for more details.

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So far this year is no different. This week I've appeared as an expert on BBC Radio Wales' Jamie and Louise programme, which means I get to chat live on air about my research, offering advice and even get the chance to surprise some listeners with information that has remained elusive.

Just before Christmas I received an email during another appearance on Jamie and Louise from Jean Cook in Wrexham who wanted help tracing her husband's ancestors.

Tony Cooke's mother had died in childbirth in 1928 when he was just three years old. Unable to ask his father too many questions Tony grew up without knowing much about his mother other than her date of death and her name, Gertrude Fisher.

A simple search of the marriage indexes using both his parents' surnames around the time of Tony's year of birth uncovered a possible marriage in Wrexham in 1924. After ordering a copy via www.gro.gov.uk for £9.25, five days later it arrived and the first piece of the jigsaw was complete.

As you can see below the certified copy confirms Gertrude's age and her father's name.

Knowing that she was born around 1905 meant the next logical step was to check the 1911 census to see if I could find a match for Gertrude Fisher aged around six living with a father called Joseph in the vicinity of Wrexham.

Bingo. The 1911 revealed not just Gertrude and her father but also a mother called Mary Jane and two siblings, Ronald and Ethel, aged four and eight respectively. The 1911 census is also the first one to confirm the length of time the head of the house has been married and how many children have been born, as well as how many children have died. It is also lovely to see the full address of the family, "37 Westminster Road, Broughton", written in hand by the occupier rather than the enumerator.

Quickly scanning the marriage indexes I located Joseph Fisher's marriage to Mary Jane George in 1902. The best website for this, since you can enter first names rather than the unknown maiden name of a woman, is www.freebmd.org.uk.

(Focusing on the maternal line means that the surname changes every generation and for this reason alone it seems that people often shy away from researching their maternal bloodlines - or at least they leave it until they have succeeded with the male lines. I'll never forget when once at a BBC family history roadshow someone asked me why I had bothered researching both sides of the family as the women's line didn't count! Perhaps Stephen Fry could invent a word for this type of person.)

Back to the 1911 census. Mary Jane's age was given as 31 and her place of birth as Wrexham. She was easy to spot on the 1881 as a one-year-old living with her parents Edward and Constance and numerous siblings in Broughton.

At this stage it always pay to check to see whether other people have already completed similar research into the same family. On Genes Reunited and Ancestry I found people who had helpfully posted a tree which declared that Constance was the daughter of Crompton and Margaret Hulme. There is even a photograph of Constance's sister Sarah dressed like Queen Victoria.

Yesterday Tony Cooke did not know the year of his parents' marriage and today he knows that Margaret Hulme was his great great grandmother. Another satisfied customer.

This has certainly been true over the past few weeks while I've been helping a young woman try to find her father. It's one of those stories you couldn't possibly make up, since the truth is far more powerful than fiction.

DNA test results don't always provide a happy outcome

Michelle was a child of the 70s, her birth registered without a father's name. She was raised by her grandmother after her mother struggled with epilepsy and various mental health issues. At the age of 16 Michelle asked her mother about the identity of her father and was told the name of a man with whom her mother had had a relationship.

Several years later Michelle married and now has children of her own. Finding her father was growing increasingly more important to her and so using family history tracing skills Michelle thought she found him.

Plucking up courage she never knew she had she made contact. They quickly formed a bond and felt comfortable enough in each other's company to be able to commit to a DNA test, only to discover to their joint disappointment that they weren't father and daughter after all.

Understandably Michelle gave up, wounded and grown fragile by the impact of the search for her father and that disastrous DNA test.

I don't know what made her start again, but she emailed me last year asking for help and I could not say no.

After what I imagine must have been a very difficult conversation with her mother she was eventually given the name of another man, John. Luckily her aunt could remember where he had lived and some other brief details.

So I sent Michelle off to her local archives to hunt through the electoral registers for the address she had, to see if she could trace the family around the time of her conception. The registers are not alphabetical by surname or even street, but usually comprise apparently random streets which are laid out geographically according to polling districts.

However, once found in a single register it is easy to go sideways to see when the family might have moved to that address and when new voters are added to the list, indicating that a person recently reached voting age (not forgetting that this was reduced from 21 years to 18 in 1969).

These details can then be cross-referenced against the birth indexes to learn the actual age and middle names of a person. This makes it easier to look for them in marriage and death indexes and to trace their children.

And so Michelle acquired the birth and marriage certificates for John and the address matched. The next step was to try to find him, which is not that simple when you don't know where they live and they have a common name.

After some very careful consideration and much deliberation and debate it was decided that an ambiguously worded letter from me about researching a family history for that surname would be enough to establish whether the letter had been sent to the right man. This system is not without its flaws but, after toying with the idea of a personal visit or a phone call or making contact on Facebook by either Michelle or myself, it seemed the best way.

Several letters and some weeks later my phone rang. It was him. My mouth felt dry and my mind emptied of the facts. I told myself to breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

He had been waiting for this day. He knew about the pregnancy. He wanted to provide support. He wanted to do the right thing. But he was told that the baby was not his and since she did not share any physical similarities he felt it best to take a step back.

Neither could bear the thought of forming a relationship without being certain and so, incredibly, for the second time in her life Michelle completed another DNA test.

I'll let Michelle tell you the end of her story...

"After weeks of waiting for the whole process to be completed, I opened up an email that told me I still had not found my dad. The probability of paternity was 0% and the alleged father [John] was excluded as the biological father of the tested child.

"But what I now know is that without contacting Cat I would not have got to the end of this journey. Cat pointed me in the right direction with electoral registers and getting copies of birth and marriage certificates but, most importantly, she was able to speak to John and explain why I was looking for him without putting myself through extra anguish and anxiety.

"With Cat's help I managed to trace someone halfway around the world and even though it turns out that John is not my dad I think that my family and I will have a friendship with him for the rest of our lives.

"I have wanted a dad all my life and I still do not know where the other half of me has come from. It all could have ended up so perfect. As for my future, I do not have any more leads and have no contact with my mother, so I will lay the search for my dad to rest and resign myself to never knowing."

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As a specialist in tracing people part of my daily routine is spent tracking down beneficiaries to the estates of people who have died without leaving a will. I thought that over the past 15 years I'd encountered just about every facet of human life and society, but I am always being amazed, and that alone keeps me motivated.

The research is sometimes relatively easy compared to the actual contact with the beneficiaries. Tracking long lost Joneses in Wales is far easier than telling someone that their mother has died, which I've had to do twice this year and it's still only the start of March. It's easy for me to be judgemental and to ask how did they not know that their own mother had died. Not knowing often equates with not caring but this isn't necessarily the case and people always have a reason.

Recently I've also had to tell a son that his father has died. I learned that the father had been a long-term patient living for 50 years in an institution for people with mental health issues, never once visited by his son because his mother was trying to protect him from something.

Some of the people take the news badly. Sometimes there are tears but more often the news is met with a simple "I wondered what happened to them," or worse, "We weren't allowed to mention their name or ask any questions".

In the past I've offered to help locate graves or offered to have a headstone or memorial erected but I've stopped offering now since it is a presumption on my behalf that they care. Judging by the uncomfortable pauses I've endured, some of them neither want nor need this information and have no desire to learn any more about their long lost relative.

This doesn't necessarily mean that they are greedy or only interested in the money. In fact, a lot of my time is spent trying to persuade people that they should take the money rather than let the Crown keep it, alongside the other millions of pounds they already make from intestate estates. After a while the guilt subsides and people can be encouraged to nominate a charity or to think of others in their family who may need the money more.

But inheriting money from someone you didn't know doesn't sit well with a lot of people. Naturally it makes them reflect upon their own mortality and their own sense of family. I imagine that they wonder what would happen were they to die without leaving a will.

In the past I've also assumed that to die without a will means that that you die alone and that their funeral was an empty sad affair. I couldn't have been more wrong. Often the person who dies has a great many friends who cared greatly for that person, including a number of very close friends, carers and/or partners.

Some of these people may have been told that they were going to benefit. Yet when the time comes and a will cannot be found, or it is not dated or signed by two witnesses, or any number of other legalities, it may be invalid and the people who cared, and who were there at the end, simply cannot inherit.

Of course the TV and radio work that I do for the BBC helps enormously, as has the BBC One series Heir Hunters series, since now people know that this is a bona fide (if rather unusual) situation and that the reason for me approaching them is genuine.

I can't see that my line of work will ever dry up but if I am honest it would nice to think that fewer people suffered simply by ensuring that a will is written, which is why when I send out cheques to the beneficiaries I always finish my letters with these words:

"Ensure that you leave a will so that the people you care about benefit from your estate and that the same situation does not arise again."

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"During the war my family in Nantymoel had an evacuee from London, a little boy called Stanley Cordish (unsure of spelling). He had to leave us as his parents decided to send him to America for safety. Stanley always said he was going to come back but he never did. We heard that a ship had gone down and wondered if Stanley was on it. My mother loved Stanley and always wondered what had happened to him."

Stanley as a teenager

My first thought was to determine whether Stanley had been on board the fated City of Benares, which was torpedoed and sunk with the loss of 77 children. An email to the Evacuees Reunion Association (ERA) was quickly replied to with incredible detail. This was the reply:

"I have checked in the book The Absurd And The Brave; its appendix lists the names of those lost in the City of Benares disaster. I could not find any reference to Stanley Cordish, neither is he listed in the names of survivors. A total of 12 ships sailed to Canada carrying Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) evacuees. I have also checked the list of evacuees who arrived safely at Canada on those ships, but could not find a Stanley Cordish"

Although this had confirmed that Stanley had not been sent to Canada, it brought more potential complications since I now knew that the Government's scheme known as CORB evacuated children to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, but not to the United States!

Stanley aged 10

I began to wonder whether Stanley had attended school whilst in Nantymoel and a visit to the gleaming and spacious Glamorgan County Archives revealed that, while plenty of other local schools had deposited their attendance registers with the archives, this was not the case for Nantymoel.

According to ERA, if Stanley had been evacuated via the Government's evacuation scheme, Operation Pied Piper, then it was just possible that the billeting officer's register for that area still exists. If it does it should be held at the relevant County Record Office or main public library, and would have Stanley's name, date of birth, home address, parents name, foster parents name and address as well as the date he left and where he went.

But luck was not on my side that day. The register had not survived so I decided to take a step back and sent emails to the local library in Nantymoel and the local junior school.

At this point I was asked to give an update while appearing on BBC Radio Wales' Jamie and Louise programme. The listeners often seem to have that knack of solving a problem.

And so it was that I received an email from Norma who said that she happened to be listening last time I was the radio talking about the search for Stanley.

That night Norma attended a meeting of the Ogmore Valley History and Heritage Society, after which she bought a CD which contained the local school admissions registers. Here's what she told me:

"I don't know if you are still looking for information on Stanley but a Stanley Kodish (not CORDISH) attended Nantymoel junior school from 20/5/1940 until 31/7/1940," she said. "His date of birth is given as 12/9/1930 and he was staying with a J Roberts at 21 Oakfield Terrace"

Thanks to the kindness of Norma's heart, and of this small yet dedicated local history group, this was the eureka moment I'd been waiting for. Now that I had the correct spelling of the surname and the year of birth I was quickly able to trace Stanley's birth and then his marriage to Gillian in 1962.

And, although I was able to locate Gillian on the electoral register there was no sign of Stanley living at the address.

Gillian answered my letter confirming that Stanley had sadly died in 2007 but that they had enjoyed a long and happy marriage together.

So, only one final question remains. This time posed by Stanley's widow Gillian Kodish who kindly sent me a photograph of Stanley at school (he's sitting right at the back).

Is this Nantymoel junior school and, if so, can anyone name the other children? Please leave a comment below if you can help.

Stanley at school

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During my childhood I was frequently treated to a half term like no other child; a trip to St Catherine's House. This included so-called "educational research tasks" set by my mother that were worse than any homework a teacher could have created.

And yes, I hated it! Or at least I thought I hated it, but now I come to think of it perhaps I didn't after all. Perhaps I even enjoyed it since it also included the challenge of competing with my sister to find the right entry in the right book and the promise of tea and cake afterwards.

How did my mum know that I would end up doing this for a job? Are all mothers psychic? is that part of the job criteria for being a mother?

St Catherine's house was where all the birth, death and marriage indexes were housed. These huge heavy books were bound in red, black or green accordingly and covered all the civil registration entries for the whole of England and Wales from 1837 virtually up to the present day.

Not only were the rooms small and the books bigger than me, but the space in which you had to turn around and open them created a struggle. Each time you fought for a place on the reading stands, elbowing people as you went, only to find that when you turned around to replace the book - always methodically in its correct place, knowing from experience even at that young age what a disaster it would be for the next person if the index was misplaced - someone would jump into your spot. You would then wait patiently for them to turn around so you could jump back into the space.

My memory tells me that the adoption indexes were kept upstairs alongside the entries for overseas events and those births, deaths and marriages registered by military personnel.

A short walk away was Somerset House. I think that now it is the home of an ice skating rink in winter and concerts in summer, but it was then the home of thousands of wills, which seemed to miraculously appear while you waited.

That all seems such a long time ago. Since then the GRO BMD indexes have been moved twice, ending up at the National Archives in Kew via the purpose built and gloriously spacious Family Record Centre in Islington (complete with modern requirements such as lockers, toilets and photocopiers) and very conveniently located near Exmouth market for sumptuous snacks to fortify family history researchers.

And now here I am at my kitchen table barely lifting more than my little fingers to access all those indexes which have been digitally scanned onto various databases and websites and beamed into my house via some elaborate technology way beyond my comprehension.

I hate to say it but I miss the old days and the old ways. And, even worse, I have to admit that those were the best ever half term holidays, so thank you Mum.

Recently I've been trying to help find a photograph of a RAF service man who died in 1944 on the outskirts of the Althorp estate in Northamptonshire. Patricia Betts is writing a book about the crash of a Wellington bomber with the tragic loss of all seven crew members.

Sergeant Thomas William Jones came from Roath in Cardiff. He is buried in Cathays cemetery in the same grave as his little sister Gloria. Details were kindly confirmed by the staff in the Bereavement Services office in Thornhill.

Their parents were Thomas William Jones and Ethel Reeves who kept a corner shop in Cyfartha Street in Roath. I was pleased to quickly establish that he also had a younger brother, John born in 1931, but looking for a John Jones in Wales is not an easy task and I quickly decided that alternative methods would need to be employed.

Changing tack I approached the RAF Museum and learned that although it would be possible for me to apply for his service records, because over 25 years had passed since his death at the age of just 19, there would be no photograph of him held in his service records unfortunately.

But it was just possible that a group photo may have been taken before the fateful flight. The archivist at the RAF museum told me that Sergeant Jones served with 85 operational training unit and encouraged me to try the Imperial War Museum, so I sent them an email and waited patiently. Two days later the answer arrived with usual military three letter abbreviations; no photographs were held of 85 OTU at IWM.

Another thought occurred to me while out walking one day. Some time ago, as part of BBC Radio Wales' Look Up Your Genes family history series, we met a man who incredibly had found all the members of his long lost family with the help of just one sticky note.

Thomas William Jones

Being a lover of graveyards and a hater of litter I'm not suggesting a new line in products for placing notes on the headstones of our ancestors, but sometimes a discreetly positioned card is the only way to make contact (with others who visit the grave and not the deceased obviously!).

A quick visit to the cemetery (which required the help of staff to locate his grave amongst the 50,000 spread over 84 acres) revealed that Sergeant Jones had a standard Commonwealth War gravestone in Portland stone.

The words at the base of the headstone were individually chosen, I imagine by his grieving parents. They read: "A daily thought, A secret tear, And an everlasting memory".

More relevant to the search though was the granite vase "From Neighbours" at the foot of the grave, which contained evidence of recent flowers being placed there by someone who cares. Perhaps someone who knew Thomas, perhaps his brother, a cousin or even a nephew or niece.

In December I was invited to appear on Roy Noble's BBC Radio Wales afternoon programme along with Patricia to talk about the search for Sergeant Thomas William Jones (service number 3031716).

And our prayers were answered! His cousin Jacqui Burridge rang in to say that she had a photo of Thomas as a young boy. Jacqui also had some last known contact details for her first cousin once removed, also called John Jones, but he too remains elusive.

So in the meantime perhaps I should nip along to Cathays cemetery and check that the note is still there after all those strong winds we've had this winter.