‘Detective’ has roots research put on CD (From Lancashire Telegraph)

‘Detective’ has roots research put on CD

2:44pm Thursday 5th January 2012 in Looking Back By Gill Johnson, Features writer

A DATABASE of the prominent people in Blackburn and district over an 800-year period is now available on CD.

Ray Smith, chairman of Blackburn Local History Society, has researched the people of the town from 1100 to 1899, which runs to more than 1,300 pages.

Now it has been put on disk by Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Society, and can be used to reunite families and solve family tree puzzles.

The database is presented century by century and, for the early periods, everyone who lived in Blackburn is included.

However, as he progressed through the centuries, he became more specific on who was included.

Some entries are brief, others run to a third of a page.

Ray commented: “This is a never-ending exercise that occupies every spare minute of my time, but which gives me satisfaction, especially when two bits of information link together, a bit like a detective gathering clues that eventually solve a case.

“I am reuniting families whose details are spread out among the records.”

Copies of the CD are available from LFHHS, 2 Strait, Oswaldtwistle, BB5 3LU, and cost £4.50, plus £1.10 p&p; or contact Tony Foster at ga.foster@btopenworld.com