I’m Susan and I hail from Nottingham in the East Midlands of England—the land of Robin Hood—and that’s the local greeting in those parts. I caught the travel bug at 24, set off for Australia as a backpacker, met my Aussie husband within two months, and the rest, as they say, is history!

My business name, Acorn to Oak Family History, is a nod to Sherwood Forest, home to Robin Hood and England’s mighty oak trees. It’s also a fitting analogy for genealogy—how a single name or piece of information (the acorn) can grow into a sprawling family tree with deep roots and countless branches (the oak).

I was first introduced to the joys (and frustrations!) of genealogy by my husband’s aunt, a family historian. My own journey began when I discovered a puzzling inconsistency—my great-grandmother’s birth and marriage certificates listed different fathers! That single mystery led me down a path of asylum admissions, city relocations, falsified census records, and illegitimate children. After solving that puzzle, I was hooked, and my love for family history became an obsession.

When we visit England, my family knows to expect “detours” to churches and graveyards—everyone gets assigned a section, hunting for family names! My own ancestry connects to English aristocracy, famous writers, and even stretches into Scotland and Ireland, inspiring travels to far-flung places. I discovered my great-grandmother was born in Myanmar (formerly Burma), which led me to uncover her father’s military service—and in 2017, I followed in his footsteps to visit the country. Another ancestor set sail for a new life in Fernie, Canada, in 1906, and I had the honour of visiting his resting place in one of the most breathtaking cemeteries I’ve ever seen.