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Stephen Rigden

Records Development Manager

Role

I work with archives, family history societies and other owners of original historical records to digitise these for findmypast.co.uk. I also help and advise colleagues on family history questions and problems. You may recognise me as findmypast.co.uk's resident family history expert. I have been a professional genealogist since 1987 and was with findmypast.co.uk at the time of its first incarnation, Family Research Link, which metamorphosed into 1837online.

Family history

All my 16 great great grandparents were born east of the River Medway, so I am a bona fide man of Kent. As well as East Kent, my specialist interests include Eastern European and Balkan genealogy.

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Debra Chatfield

Marketing manager

Role

One of the original team of four that launched the website back in 2003, (then known as 1837online), I now look after all offline marketing including PR, print and TV advertising, events and sponsorship for findmypast.co.uk.

Family history

Among my ancestors are generations of Dartmoor blacksmiths, Norfolk carpenters dating back to Elizabethan times, pianoforte manufacturers from Shoreditch in London, and Robert Towell, the first full-time English infill plane maker (a tool for cabinet makers), one of whose signed 170 year old planes I now proudly own.

Elaine Collins

Business development director

Role

As findmypast.co.uk's business development director I lead the team responsible for acquiring new records for the site, key partnerships and international initiatives.

Family history

I come from a long line of English agricultural labourers and, when they gave up on country life and fled to the overcrowded houses of north London, carmen, laundresses and railway workers, with a smattering of Italian peasantry and Irish soldiers thrown into the mix. I consider myself a Londoner through and through, and I live in historic Clerkenwell within a one mile radius of the majority of my 19th and 20th century ancestors.

Peter Lancaster

Web developer

Role

I was one of the web developers that built the 1837online which started with just the birth, marriage and death records for England and Wales before more records were added and the site was renamed to findmypast.co.uk. I work on all aspects of the website but focus on providing searches when new records become available.

Family history

My own family history is all concentrated in the Preston area where my ancestors often worked in the thriving cotton industry on which much of the population of Preston relied during the 19th century.

Paul Yates

Head of findmypast

Role

I am the head of findmypast.co.uk and lead a talented team to deliver one of the leading family history websites with the most amazing collection of historical records.

Family history

My ancestors are a very mixed bag. On my father's side there is a very long line of miners from Bolsover in Derbyshire. These ancestors are very easy to trace as they remained in the same village for many generations. On my mother's side there are more lofty connections to the Duke of Bedford, as well as my favourite ancestor who allegedly printed the first penny black.

Ian Tester

Product manager

Role

As product manager I am responsible for developing and improving the website, particularly looking for new features to make discovering your family history easier and more satisfying.

Family history

I come from a long line of agricultural labourers and fishermen, mostly from Kent and Sussex but with a few exotic imports. When I moved house a few years ago, I later discovered that I am literally encircled by generations of my ancestors, which means that some research can be done on a long walk. My most exciting discovery to date is that I appear to be related in some way to most of the remaining fishing families in Hastings.

Nicky Doran

Head of customer services

Role

I lead all of the support teams across the brightsolid family websites.

Family history

I am first generation English as both of my parents and all of their ancestors originate from Ireland. While researching my extended family history, my family were surprised to find that my West Indian father-in-law's grandfather was the illegitimate son of King Christian IX of Denmark.

George Kyriacou

Webmaster

Role

Part of my duties is to build and code new pages and improve the site with new content and features. I am also involved in search engine optimisation by integrating key internet marketing strategies to help increase traffic to findmypast.co.uk

Family history

From researching my family history, I've learnt that my family is considerably bigger than average! Both sets of my grandparents were very persistent: my paternal grandparents produced eight boys and one girl, while my maternal grandparents were slightly more balanced with four boys and three girls. Tracing my family has been quite a challenge as most of my relatives live in Cyprus.

Amy Sell

Marketing executive

Role

I help to promote the records and features available on findmypast.co.uk through PR campaigns, advertising and by organising findmypast.co.uk's presence at events. I am constantly looking for points of interest within the records. I was responsible for discovering that David Beckham's great-great-great-grandfather was a scavenger and also that the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was caught hiding in the Houses of Parliament on the night of the 1911 census.

Family history

There are rumours of sporting greatness in my family tree: my great-great-uncle is said to have won two bronze Olympic medals for cycling and my great-great-great-grandfather is thought to have been a winner of the Doggett's Coat and Badge race. You can follow my progress of tracing my family tree on my blog: Amy: Finding My Past

Jess Moore

Editor and community manager

Role

I joined findmypast.co.uk in January 2010 and since then have been busy adding lots of content to various parts of the site. I create and send out your monthly newsletters (I hope you enjoy them!) and I'm usually the person who gets involved on our blog and Facebook page.

Family history

Since starting my family tree I've discovered that my maternal great grandfather was born in India - I had no idea! I now want to find out how he met my great grandmother, a Yorkshire lass, and how their marriage came about.

Francesca Aiyeola

Data analyst

Role

My responsibilities as data analyst include publishing the data onto findmypast.co.uk, fixing data and image faults and dealing with data issues.

Family history

Working at findmypast.co.uk has fuelled my need to know more about my ancestors. My whole family have caught the bug too! I recently found out that my paternal grandfather, who was a goldsmith, was the first person to drive a car in his village. He had been given the money by his father to buy gold but he came back with a car. Coming from Afro-Caribbean ancestry I was able to get information from the migration and birth, marriage and death records.

Richard Jackson

Data manager

Role

Relatively fresh to genealogy, I have been with findmypast.co.uk since February 2010 and I spend my time dealing with data supplies from family history societies and transcription houses. I am responsible for loading data to the site and data and image quality.

Family history

I come from a long line of farmers, miners and blacksmiths - one of whom was almost bankrupted after the birth of the motor car.

Scot McSweeney-Roberts

Software developer

Role

My job as software developer involves ensuring that the back-end of the findmypast.co.uk website functions as efficiently as possible.

Family history

My ancestry is a mixed bag, to say the least. My McSweeney side is Irish-American. My maternal grandfather was born in America in around 1917 and I discovered that he worked on a submarine base in Groton, CT. My dad was born in Scotland and there are also Welsh links in my paternal line. My research has also uncovered some mining and firemen ancestors.

Paul Nixon

Content licensing manager

Role

I work with Elaine Collins and Stephen Rigden to bring you the best family history records from data owners around the world. I am also findmypast.co.uk's resident military expert.

Family history

It doesn't take much to divert me along various military history avenues, a trait I blame on my maternal great-grandfather, paternal grandfather and four great uncles, all of whom served their King and Country during WW1. My great great grandfather was a colour sergeant with the 2nd Regiment of Foot and I have a letter from him, written to his commanding officer on 14 November 1861 (while stationed on the island of Corfu) asking to be 'allowed the indulgence' of getting married. Had permission not been granted, it seems unlikely I would be writing this...

Rajini Lolay

Online marketing executive

Role

I'm responsible for the day-to-day management of the findmypast.co.uk paid search campaigns which involves working with search engines to drive profitable traffic to the site. I also manage the affiliate scheme which allows me to build relationships with genealogy publishers and ensure they have everything they need to earn through our scheme.

Family history

My family history stems from India, where my parents were born. It's frustrating that family history records aren't so organised there! I haven't been able to trace my family tree further than grandparents. I do know that my family trade was pottery, although I've never tried it myself!

Guy Strachan

Digitisation manager

Role

I joined findmypast.co.uk in March 2011 and manage the digitisation processes (capturing original documents and transcriptions) for our record sets.

Family history

It's early days on the genealogy front for me but just going back a couple of generations shows my ancestors moved across the UK, from Somerset to Wales and back south on one side and from Scotland to London on the other.

Xin Zhu

Java developer

Role

I joined findmypast.co.uk in September 2011 and I work on all application development aspects of the site. My ambition is to bring the most cutting-edge technologies into production and give our users the best family research experience.

Family history

I come from a small city in northeast China. As far as I know, all my ancestors are from the same region. My great grandfather started as an apprentice in a retail business and subsequently owned the majority of the business. He then invested in properties and had about 40 houses and a lot of land at one point! Interestingly, my grandparents on both of my parents' sides are doctors, although none of their predecessors had anything to do with medicine!

Mike Weedon

Product executive

Role

I work in the product team, helping to enhance the usability and functionality of the website, looking after our emails, search engine optimisation and pitching in with our social media.

Family history

I'm a newbie to family history; however, my initial research shows that I am very much a true Celt, born in Wales with Welsh, Irish and Cornish ancestors. Further back I have ancestors from Staffordshire. An exciting discovery was on my father's side of the family: a relative was a Royal Navy commander of HMS Hood, among others, and a gunnery expert.