Welcome to my family history home page where I am gradually posting my research online.

I've been interested my family history since the my childhood. My immediate family comes from Hampshire which is where the majority of my known ancestors are from, but I also have recent ancestors from Berkshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Essex, Jersey and Guernsey.

I have done lots of research on the Barfoot families of Hampshire (though sadly my own line peters out with an Edward Barfoot in the Curdridge area, born in the 1620s), and I have compiled what I believe to be a complete tree of all known bearers of the Croutear surname. Other Hampshire families of particular interest are the Vane or Vaine family of Sparsholt, the Banks family of Hythe, the Kemish family of Michelmersh, the Braxton family of Beaulieu, and the Bull family from Ringwood and Beaulieu.

More recently, I have documented a line of descent from King Henry III via the Earls of Arundel, and two mediæval knightly families: the Echynghams or Echinghams of Sussex, and the Rogers family of Bryanston, Dorset. An illegitimate daughter of Sir Henry Rogers (c1447–c1506) married into a family of New Forest gentry, the Lovells of Eling, from whom I descend. The Plantagenets descend from St Arnulf, Bishop of Metz (c582–640), commonly said to be the earliest Western European from whom well-documented post-mediæval descents exist.

Outside Hampshire, I've done extensive research on the various Gosselin, Joslin and Jocelyn families in Jersey in the hope that it might help be past a brick wall with my ancestors François Joslin and his wife Jeanne Melet. It hasn't yet, but I've enjoyed tracing these families in the département of La Manche. French records from the 18th and 19th century are wonderfully detailed compared to English ones of the same period, and their use of the passé antérieur has stretched my schoolboy French. The French Republican calendar adds an extra challenge too.

Once Covid lock-down is over, I look forward to arranging a trip to the Priaulx Library in Guernsey to research the family of Thomas Fallaize. However the unanswered question I'd most like answering is where in Germany was John Scheu from? The 1871 census gives a tantalising hint that he might be from Berlin, though the surname is most common in the south-west Germany, particularly in what was then the Kingdom of Württemberg.

At present, most of my research on the Barfoot family has not been uploaded here, though my old Barfoot website is still online, albeit not updated for nearly 20 years. There is also a lot of material still to be added to this site on the Bull, Braxton, Dew, Echyngham, Hatto, Kemish, Lovell, Moody, Rogers, Vaine and Warner families. I'm slowly adding it.

— Richard A Smith