Mark Carroll was for over 30 years a biochemistry lecturer at one of London's premier medical schools. He was introduced to family history by his sister in 2002. His first major project was to research his mother's maiden name, Orriss. Little did he know that it would not be so easy, despite the apparently rare surname. He also did not realise that he would come up against the genealogist's worst nightmare: a Smith family from London! In spite of these challenges he made substantial progress. Along the way he was helped by archivists and by some distant cousins who had been researching the shared family for years. With their combined sleuthing, he and they together took the Orriss line back to a marriage in Suffolk in 1597. But what to do when you hit a genealogical 'brick wall'? In recent years DNA analysis has opened up new possibilities for family historians. With his professional background in human biochemical genetics, Mark was well placed to take advantage of this novel technology. In this fascinating and at times amusing book Mark takes you on a journey to discover the origins of his mother's family. He describes, in an engaging and non-technical way, his successes and failures, the research methods he employed, the skills he developed, and his use of DNA analysis. He has yet to overcome his greatest genealogical challenge - to prove whether his mother's Orriss family is descended from King Alfred the Great!

A reflection, in chapters, on the lives of members of the author's family, their friends and neighbours who lived in Orleans and Caledonia counties between the end of the eighteenth and the middle of the twentieth centuries. Hard-working, God-fearing, and often clever, these were literate, respectable, and fairly well-off folks. They were, also, all too human - and certainly not always 'nice' or admirable'. The history that spills out from this archive - of documents, letters and postcards, diaries, photographs and oral history - encompasses family tales, curses and scandals; the working lives of farmers, store-keepers, merchants and railway men; education, teenage life, and courtship; building homes and becoming consumers; serving in the militia and in war; early tourism, and local entertainments; with a discursion on Vermont family names along the way. It is a fascinating story, generously illustrated with reproductions of documents and photographs.

This book is a transcription of the 1930 population census of Guam. It begins with an overview and some observations of the census in general. Each census page contained is simply a transcription from what was handwritten and into a type written format. It serves as a tool to make it a little easier for fellow genealogy researchers during the course of their work.