I started researching in 1986 as a result of material left me by my grandmother. In those days, my research took me to my local record office – it just so happened that I lived in the area from which all my Udall forebears seemed to spring – Dorset.

With the advent of the computer and then the internet, I gradually came to realise that the family name spread much wider. This didn’t bother me for a while, except that there were many “unwanted” names I had to trawl through to find “my” names. Then recently I started to wonder what, if any, connections there might be between the various family groups. So now I have retired from full-time employment, it’s time to attempt the connecting-up of all those names which have, up till now, been getting in the way of what I used to consider my “real” family history.