Some researchers just want to trace their father’s line back just a couple of generations others, like myself become name gatherers and start researching the lines of every person who enters their family line. E.g. First I researched my father’s line and then I started on my mothers family then my paternal grandmother’s lineage and then to my maternal grandmother’s lines, I think that I have about 60 different surnames “on the go” at this moment in time - all with their own qualities and stories to tell.

Everyone in my immediate family told me their birth and marriage dates and also supplied as much information as possible regarding deceased relatives. I also borrowed people’s birth marriage and death certificates and took photocopies for my records. Close relatives were invaluable in providing the basics for my research even if their memories were a little fuzzy. A throw away remark about my great-great grandfather “of course you knew he married 3 times” told me something I didn’t know and as a result I was able to piece together this part of his life.

Whilst talking to these relatives I asked them to get out the family photo album and asked them to identify everyone in some wonderful old photos. I persuaded them to pencil or stick in post-it notes where the photos weren't labelled so that the subjects would be identifiable in the future. Photographs are wonderful things full of memories and whilst we can remember who feature in photos we ourselves have taken or featured in please remember our descendants won’t know who these people are. So please make a start on your photo album and label your snapshots for the family heirloom of the future.

All this research gave me the foundation of what I knew about my family and also showed me what I didn't know. At this point it was useful to draw up a rough family tree, I didn't’t spend too much time, as it needed updating frequently as my research progressed. My basic tree starts with me at the bottom with my parents on the next level. I aim to keep each generation on the same level and usually the husband is shown on the left of his wife- of course there are exceptions. In my case the difficult relationship to try and show is that of my paternal grandparents who were first cousins!

I needed to resort to official information in the UK especially as my parents and previous generations were born in UK. Civil Registration began on 1 July 1837 in England and all of us who are born in England and Wales will have been registered at the local Superintendent Registrars office. These records are collated into indexes alphabetically arranged by year and into 4 quarters March, June, September and December and separately for Birth, Marriages and Deaths. All of these indexes are available to the researcher free of charge at the National Archives in Kew London (microfiche) and will give you all information that will enable you to order a copy of a birth marriage or death certificate from the General Registrar Office (GRO) .

When I started researching Diviani I took a blanket approach and decided that there couldn’t be that many Diviani’s so I looked through every index and recorded every Diviani entry - This involved 160 years (e.g. 1837 to 1997) For each of these years there would be an index for Births, Marriages and Deaths for each quarter. At that time the indexes were available in book form at the Family Records Centre in London, so in total I looked through (160*4*3) = 1920 indexes. Each index weighs about 9Kgs so I have handled about 17820 kgs to reveal just over 200 entries.

My earliest UK entry was for Pietro’s marriage in 1852 to Mary O’Connor. So I took the plunge paid my fee and ordered my copy certificate along with a couple more early Diviani entries. I now had a clutch of certificates that gave addresses of the people being registered that led me to explore the London census for the years 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901. The census has a 100 year rule of confidentiality and little did I know how keenly I would await 2 January 1992 for the release of the 1891 census or how frustrated I would be waiting for the much awaited 1901 census to be released. Now I keenly await the next release of the 1911 census to fill in the remaining gaps.

Such is the popularity of Family History the National Archives decided the 1901 census would be digitised and available on the internet unfortunately the planners underestimated the popularity of the hobby and the site was unable to cope with the sheer volume of researchers in its early days. However the early teething troubles have now been rectified and I can now search for long lost relatives in the 1901 census from the comfort of my own armchair and keenly look forward to 2009 when the 1911 census will be available.

Of course not everyone stayed in the same place for 1 year - let alone 10 years, so sometimes I found nothing. Other times I hit the jackpot and unearthed a whole family. The real breakthrough that came from the census entries told me the Diviani family members were Swiss then I found an entry that said they came from Calpiogna and then ultimately the entry that said Campello, Switzerland.

So where were Campello and Calpiogna? My local library didn't yield a lot of information; a Michelin map of Switzerland did not give me any leads either. Then I found another census entry that stated Tessin was place of origin this narrowed down to the Canton of Ticino and after some investigation and a trip to Stanfords (cartographic bookshop) in London I located Campello and Calpiogna in the Valle Leventina just above Faido.

The Family Records centre also holds calendars to wills 1838- 1900 and these Wills are a valuable source of information, the main copies used to be held at Somerset House but are now located at the London Probate Registry and for a small fee I obtained some details of family bequests that helped to piece together a family group.

The London Metropolitan Archive (LMA) also had much useful information. My searches there tracked down a print of the interior of the Sardinian chapel where Pietro married, a rather unhappy exterior photograph taken just before its demolition in 1893 to make way for Kingsway in Holborn. It also holds microfilms of deposited Parish Registers (C of E) for most of London. Its not only fascinating to view baptism entries for your ancestors but also strange to come across a copy of your own marriage entry! Recently the records of the Unione Ticinese have been deposited there and are available for open research.

For me the Society of Genealogists had an image of retired whiskered gentlemen drawing up large family trees when I joined but setting this aside I decided it’ library would be of use in my research. On its shelves in the Swiss section I did find a very useful book that told me the Diviani’s had been in Campello and Calpiogna since the 1600’s. I also found details of burials in the Kensal Green Cemetery where there are not only Diviani buried but also graves commemorating other Ticinese people who lived and died in London, these graves are maintained by the Unione Ticinese.

I joined the Unione Ticinese some years ago to find out more about the Ticinese people and their life in London and was delighted to be present when Peter Barber and Peter Jacomelli launched their book “ Continental Taste” which gave me a wider experience of the Ticinese immigrant including mention of some of the Diviani’s who came to London.

The Unione Ticinese was founded in 1874 in Fleet Street in a Swiss restaurant that was run by a Brentini. The original purpose of the organisation was to offer support to the newly arrived Ticinese or perhaps give financial assistance if an emergency trip to Switzerland was required. Nowadays it exists as a cultural and social organisation that meets in London to celebrate Carnevale (February/March) and a Castagnata (October) in which chestnuts are brought from Ticino. These are roasted and served with Ticinese fare and accompanied by traditional music.

As to old maps I have always found old maps to be most interesting, these can show towns, villages and streets that have been renamed or just disappeared, especially in London as a consequence of the 2 world wars or just redevelopment.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) believe we are all related and part of one family. To this end the church members research their lineage to try to link everyone up. To facilitate their members’ research they have extensively microfilmed many church records and have a huge library of all of its material that is available to all of us. There is a large Family History centre in London at Hyde Park but my nearest Mormon Family History Centre and library is in Bournemouth and I made my first foray there way back in 1992. Imagine my delight when looking through the catalogue I found that they had filmed the Parish Registers for Calpiogna and Campello from their start in 1661 up to 1900 and for the payment of a small fee I could order a copy of the film and read it in their centre for up to 3 months.

I paid my money and waited whilst the order was processed from the repository in Salt Lake City, USA and in due course it arrived. What was I expecting? I don’t quite know but after my first trip I had to go out and buy an Italian - English pocket dictionary. This was when I entered the magical realms of “Maria figlia di Giovanni”. After a few visits I was proficient in reading enough of the microfilm to start picking out all the Diviani entries. I then had so many “Maria figlia di Giovanni” entries that I didn't quite know how to catalogue and record them. However in time I realised that the mothers’ maiden name was crucial to sorting out the families, as was the Soprannome an “extra” name that appended to a family to show which branch of the family the person was in.

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