Most of us when we imagine our 18th and 19th century ancestors see them as God-fearing, law abiding, peaceful people, living in a golden age when life was simpler and easier.

Access to newspaper reports, transportation records and census returns with the local prison as place of abode, have shown some of us that the law abiding part was not necessarily true, so can the same be said of the God-fearing?

Hit a brick wall? Then read on, perhaps other written sources may help.

As well as records of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the Census Returns, there is a wealth of other written evidence available to help you in your research. Very useful sources are wills and probates, settlement and removal papers, bastardy bonds and a variety of Manor records.

John Alexander Mathias was someone I knew nothing about until his name appeared on the marriage certificate of his son Edward Herbert Mathias. Edward was my great x2 grandfather on my maternal family line. John Mathias was born in 1810 in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Benjamin Williams Mathias and Anna Stewart.

It was fairly easy to trace my father's direct line of Edmonds in Lowestoft back to Gabriel, who was granted a settlement in 1696. On my way backwards I had noted every example of the surname that I could find and, when I saw them all written down, I realised that every Edmonds in Lowestoft up to the mid 19th Century was probably descended from Gabriel.

Putting the flesh on the bones of my husband's great x2 grandfather, the Rev. John Gould, B.D. took several years, some creative research, technological advances in the I.T. world and a trip to the UK. At times, it seemed like a tale lifted straight from Jane Austen, although without the customary romantic ending.

Edward Guildford was born in 1853 in Portsea, Hampshire, and was the brother of my great x2 grandfather, Charles Guilford. I discovered Edward when I found the family living in Terminus Road, Brighton (just behind the station), on the 1871 census.

Some parts of mine and my husband’s family trees have been researched extensively. However, other branches remain mere frameworks or 'skeletons', with just names, dates and information gleaned from census returns, the birth, marriage and death indexes and the International Genealogical Index (IGI).

Some thirty years ago while house-hunting we went to see what the agent said was a small chapel ‘ripe for conversion’ in the village of West Wickham in Cambridgeshire. The chapel was tiny and needed far too much done to it for us to afford to make it habitable but then we suddenly saw a foundation stone behind the nettles and a different search began.

Francis William Stanbridge was Margaret in Burton's husband's first cousin twice removed. He was born on 26th November 1885 in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and was the son of Oxfordshire born Bernard and Matilda Stanbridge.

Let me introduce myself to you. I am Genie, a creation inspired by the collective experiences of Family Tree Forum’s members who have been taking photos of religious meeting places for the site's Places of Worship (or POW) Project.

The cathedral city of Peterborough is situated on the River Nene in the heart of Cambridgeshire, 80 miles north of London. Whilst it is self-governing, it forms part of the county of Cambridgeshire for ceremonial purposes.

My parents have a motley collection of cutlery with various monograms, which has been passed down to my mother. This includes two incomplete sets of rather worn silver plated spoons, which are used every day.