Background
Several of my relatives have tried to track down our Rhodes family over the years. My cousin Christine started it as a history student in the 1960s and it was continued by her mum and mine and later by my Uncle Ronnie. They traced them from Mottram in north east Cheshire to Flockton, near Wakefield in West Yorkshire the hard way — through trips to churches to study dusty registers for each elusive clue.

That was when I set my first challenge — to trace the ancestors of my grandparents and those of my wife Pat to 1700 if it could be done. I got sucked into an enthralling hobby that has opened my eyes to events in the past and thrown up some fascinating stories. And along the way, we have had the pleasure of discovering other 'lost' relatives, sometimes in the most unlikely places.

There were three reasons for publishing this research to the web. The first is entirely selfish — despite the excellent software packages available, they soon struggle to handle the mass of information and images that we collect. Viewing family history through a browser seems to work much better. Second, it is a convenient way of sharing what I have discovered with others with the same interests. Finally, I hope it is a means of preserving my research for future generations who will hopefully have an easier entry for further research.

How the site works
Not even rocket from a bottle science! Each page represents a couple or an individual with links back to their parents and forwards to their children. There is a simple colour coding system with the solid colours indicating direct ancestors. Originally, the family names at the top of each page showed which great-grandparent yje individuals 'belonged' to, but as major branches have been uncovered, so they have had their own descriptive pages added, for example the Goddards and the Howarths. Should you need help working out a relationship of two people with a common ancestor, click here.

The Yesterdays section is where I have summarised information from the Ashton Reporter which publishes news from 100 and 50 years ago in a regular column. The churches section is where I publish photos and other information of the various churches mentioned in our families' records, like St Peter's, Ashton to the left. This section has grown as I now includes photos of any churches that I pass, depending on the weather and if I remembered my camera.

The People section brings together the various albums being collected on the site, while the Maps pages display extracts of maps to show where people lived. In places you find one or two, well Places!

The search facility comes free, courtesy of Atomz. It works well and I recommend it if you have a largish site to index. I have also added a Links page of useful sites to visit.

Where the site is up to
The pages here are far from complete. So far, your will find the main branches of our families with others being added all the time. If you have arrived here to be disappointed, please contact me and I will let you know as they are published. Nor do I claim that all the information is accurate. This is family history, not genealogy, so sometimes there is guesswork involved, rather than certified certainty. I have put question marks after entries of which I am unsure. Please treat with caution.

You will notice that I have kept private information about people who I know to be living. If you are one of those people and want details to be published, let me know. Alternatively, if I am publishing information about you that you would prefer to be kept private, please contact me.

I hope I have acknowledged everyone who has helped me along this journey on the appropriate family pages. If not, I apologise — putting it down to blind obsession! Meanwhile, please enjoy what these pages have to offer.

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