Close Ancestry

It’s a couple of years since we gave the site a bit of a make-over, so here it is! For technical reasons, which I won’t bore you with, the previous incarnation was groaning under the weight. It’s a bit like hitting your 50’s and realising […]

Welcome to www.CloseAncestry.com Tracing the history, ancestry and descendants of the Close surname from Grinton in Swaledale, Yorkshire into Durham, Lancashire and Westmorland. From there families spread to America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Thousands of census, map and Close family images. Oh yeah, and […]

We’re now providing an automated news feed to let you know when anything has changed. Basically, when we update the details of a person, or group of people, we issue a news bulletin. Times between updates vary, depending on the amount of research we have […]

A complete rework of the site Trees … which hadn’t been updated for years. We now have a version which is at least being developed and updated at regular intervals, although still a separate bolt-on. Hopefully we haven’t lost anything in the translation. Please help […]

A complete rework of the site Shop … which hadn’t aged well and was hanging by a thread. We now have a version which is integrated into the site itself rather than being an add-on bolted onto the side. Still the same stuff (ish), but […]

A complete rework of the site Galleries … which were pretty awful. Not much more to be said really. We accumulate the images from all over the place, but if you have any that you think would be of interest then please send them to […]

It’s quite a while since we gave the site a make-over, so here it is! Gone is all the dust, spiders, and miscellaneous junk that accumulates in the dark corners … the equivalent of the attic. You know the type of thing – what seemed […]

A complete site rebuild … again. Dozens of new features in our Trees section, together with a couple of hundred new Closes in a couple of new unattached trees. We’ve also added a new set of Galleries for Dedications, Gravestones and Photographs and Pictures of […]

The site’s turned into a bit of a monster and unfortunately so have the costs of keeping it going. So, to try to cover some of these we’ve put together a few goodies that we hope will tempt you into adding a few pounds into […]

Release of yet another site search facility to fix the current one. A whole load of people and place photographs.  

Release of the new site search facility.  

A complete rebuild to alleviate some of the problems we’ve been having with the site.  

Margaret Southgate (nee Close), one of our contributors, has taken up the mantle of a “One-Namer” of the Close surname. She would like anybody who is researching Close ancestors to provide whatever they can towards her endeavour. Given that we’re a prolific bunch of breeders […]

We’ve given the site a bit of a de-fluff and tidy up for spring. We’ve also introduced a Family View in addition to the original Big Picture. This was getting a bit heavy on the download times and as it was the only entry page […]

OK, we’re up and running … maybe a bit ragged in places but we take the view that it’s better to have something rather than nothing.