Oakwood Family Trees

It has been the most wonderful experience to have Kathryn Healy of Oakwood Family Trees researching my mother's background. We learnt so much and I highly recommend her. If you want to know anything about your family, don't hesitate - it has been so much fun!

I am researching the whaling ships which worked out of Bo'ness in the 18th and 19th century. I discovered one was partially owned by James Watt's (inventor of the steam engine) father and the documentation referring to the ownership was included in the James Watt papers in Birmingham Library. Living in Scotland this meant that they were not easily accessible. But I was interested to find out what they contained as James Watt had worked in Bo'ness for a period before moving south and there might be a previously unknown connecting reason why either James Watt or the ship had come to Bo'ness. I was delighted to find Kathryn Healy, living in the vicinity, who was willing to go and scan all the relevant documents saving me the hassle of travelling and doing the work myself during a period of such uncertainty when there were so many threatened strikes and shutdowns. I now only have the job of transcribing all the paperwork and seeing what light it sheds on an industry which was extremely important in its day both to the town and the country in general.

Kate has been gathering archival sources for me over the past few months. She is forensic in her searches, super efficient, and very responsive to emails. I am delighted to recommend her!

Having lost my Father when I was 9yrs, (55yrs ago) I only new names, no idea who these people were that visited and not knowing whether there were any of my Fathers family still alive today, Kate patiently, and with great dedication took me on amazing journey to actually now been able to meet up with my Dad's nieces who lived the other side of the city, fantastic job Kate, thank you.

I found Kate incredibly helpful with my family tree. She took some basic details and has managed to trace back on both sides to the mid 1800s!I couldn't have done it without her and I'm really impressed by what she managed to find out. It's not just a simple tree it includes all the info you could want to do with the stories of your relatives and links to newspaper articles, photos etc.Would 100% recommend Oakwood Family Trees to anyone looking for help with their own family past.

Kate did a brilliant job of researching my Dad's history. I wanted to know more about his Irish history and what happened when they came to Birmingham. It was all clearly presented with some great details.

Excellent , honest and reliable service offered and delivered in accordance to our agreed schedule.Kate is well-familiar with the archives at The Library of Birmingham; I highly recommend her service.

After my mum died I wanted to complete a family tree for her side of the family and was finding it difficult. I contacted Kate and was over whelmed with the end result. It even included copies of newspaper cuttings and photos. She was always responsive to emails and I now feel so much more connected to the side of the family that I knew very little about. I can thoroughly recommend her.