I have recently joined the Sole Society because
(a) I'm interested in finding out about my ancestors;
(b) my mother's maiden name was Sewell;
(c) I was very interested in the information given by Di Sewell in the August 2006 article on the website.

I'm afraid my research methods are solely internet based. The idea of travelling the country looking at records offices and churches has a romantic appeal, but I can't see me getting the time!

So most of the information I have gathered in recent years has been from searching census records online at ancestry.co.uk and buying certificates. This method is becoming exhausted so I was very exited to find a whole back tree for James Sewell and Agnes Chistiana Cannell - as far as I had got with the Sewells.

For the Whitworth line I've contacted the research service at the Leicestershire Record Office and have just got the first fruits of this last week. I've now identified my great great great grandfather William Whitworth.

James and Agnes Sewell were my mother's grandparents, her father being Albert Sewell who was born in 1880 in Hingham, Norfolk. Albert is in Norfolk in the 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses. However when he was married to Alice Batters in 1908 he had moved to Bolton and was working as a labourer. Alice was my mother's mother, but I do not know when she died. When Albert died in 1956 his widow was recorded as I. Sewell so he may have remarried.