CHORLEY, England — For most of the seven years of his Church membership, Alan Fox of the Chorley 2nd Ward, Preston England Stake, was disappointed by his failure to get beyond grandparents in tracing his family history.

Photo by David M.W. Pickup

Alan and Rose Godfrey Fox

Then, in May 2001, he married Rose Godfrey, a keen family historian who had traced her roots on several lines back to the 15th and 14th centuries. Brother Fox was stung by his wife, who, reading his patriarchal blessing's promise that he would "stand together with his kindred dead," commented that as he had gone back about only one-and-a-half generations there wouldn't be many others standing with him.

With renewed vigor and perhaps a little in competition with his wife, Brother Fox tried again, and successfully traced some ancestral lines back to the 1500s. "I thought I was doing really well," said Brother Fox, "until one day when I was at the Family History Center, working away on my Mainwaring and Baskerville line, I suddenly had this feeling that I should check in the Ancestral File. I typed in the name and the name came up with a pedigree chart added to it. I clicked on this and, much to my surprise, found that the line went back to A.D. 80."

As many researchers have discovered, tapping into the lines of royalty netted him a gold mine of information. His ancestry included Amicia de Meschines in 1169, great-great-grand-daughter of England's King Henry I. "Not only that," he explained, "I also found it included many other kings, queens, dukes, counts and countesses, princes and princesses from all over Europe and beyond. I was absolutely amazed to find that I was related to William the Conqueror, famous for the Domesday Book, and many other kings of England, Denmark, Sweden, France and Norway."

Brother Fox hasn't explained yet how he is going to manage to do all the work for his ancestors for whom ordinances haven't been performed. He said he is still trying to take it all in. "I haven't stopped searching and so far I have more than 20,000 names. All of this information I have found in the last year. It just goes to show, you should never give up seeking out your ancestors."

Since many Church members have discovered some of these royalty among their ancestors, it's likely that a great amount of the temple work has been done; Brother Fox said he hopes that's the case. However, it will require effort on Brother Fox's part to check records to verify that all the ordinances have been completed.

Brother and Sister Fox, who were sealed in the Preston England Temple on May 5, 2003, are on a service mission in the Family History Center on the Preston England Temple site at Chorley. He also serves in other callings including Primary teacher and secretary to the high priests group. Until recently, she was a counselor in the stake Relief Society presidency.