Welcome To My Birch Tree

These pages are about my family history which is based around Melton Mowbray and Oakham in Leicestershire and Rutland. Those of us who come from Rutland are proud of our heritage which, briefly, following the 1974 local government boundary changes was taken away from us. However, today Rutland is back on the map and when you enter the county you are immediately aware of doing so, with road signs marking its boundaries.

I have plans to develop the site to include much more local information and additional data about my own ancestry. I have included a small amount about my own genealogy in my surnames index, but intend to expand this. Any comments or suggestions about the site would be appreciated.

My aim in publishing these pages is two-fold, firstly to share what I have discovered about my ancestry and, secondly in the hope of the pages being read by others researching the sames areas and who are willing to share their findings.

The picture on the left shows my grandfather, Walter Birch, in his World War I uniform. He was the son of Ellen Birch, whose unfortunate death was recorded in the Melton Times on Friday July 14, 1933.

My family history has two distinct lines - my maternal line is described here. The paternal line is based around the villages of Wedmore and Meare in Somerset. If you are interested in learning more about this other line, please visit Somersetlarders.com