About: Catherine Ryan
I am an experienced researcher based in the Pennine hills of Northern England offering property and family history research in archives and online. I have particular expertise in the North Riding Registry of Deeds which was inaugurated in 1736. These documents often contain details of family relationships amongst property owners from well before civil registration in the UK. This archive is not (and probably never will be) digitised and has to be consulted at North Yorkshire County Record Office. My other specialism is in the borderlands between North Yorkshire and County Durham which can be a tricky area to research because of changing civil boundaries, further complicated by differences with ecclesiastical boundaries and poor law unions covering parishes in both counties. I also have experience of researching families in many of the northern counties of England, including Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. I'm an experienced, qualified teacher and offer advice and schemes of work to teachers and home-schooling parents who want to incorporate local and family history into the curriculum.