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Series eight of Who Do You Think You Are? started last week by looking at the fascinating family history of June Brown. We will be delving into the past of each celebrity to see what interesting finds we can make and we will ask you to rise to the challenge and see what else you can discover! This week we are looking into the family tree of J.K. Rowling and our resident genealogist, Anthony Adolph, has found some interesting discoveries. Can you uncover any more of J.K. Rowling's ancestors?

June Brown was born in 1927 in Suffolk making her the oldest person to have taken part in Who Do You Think You Are. The first episode of this series starts with June and her family before she embarks on her journey to discover her ancestors. She knows she has East End Jewish roots through her mother's side and is keen to find out more.

Hi I'm Nikki, Marketing and Product Executive at Genes Reunited. The BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Show have announced that the first celebrity appearing on this year's show will be June Brown, better known as the chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in EastEnders. Before the start of the new series I thought I'd do a little of my own research to see what I can uncover about June's family history.

On Saturday the 3rd December 1904, the relatively new RMS "Kenilworth Castle" passenger liner (part of the fleet of Union-Castle Line. See also Union Castle) slipped out of Southampton Docks bound for South Africa. Master of the ship for this voyage was Captain J Morton. The ship was travelling with only half occupancy, some 330 out of a possible 754 passengers spread across the three classes and up to 250 crew. The ship would make one stop in Madeira, the small Portuguese archipelago some 400km east of the Moroccan coast in the North Atlantic, where 15 passengers were due to disembark (and a few likely to join), before proceeding onto Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and then finally 49 days after departing from England, it would reach Durban. Of the 330 passengers who originally boarded in Southampton, the majority, some 258 were due to leave the ship when it first docked in South Africa at Cape Town.

I recently finished reading the book Empty Cradles by Margaret Humphreys and can't recommend it highly enough. It's a truly inspirational story of a women's fight for the justice of thousands of children, who up until the 1970s, had been shipped across the world for the opportunity of a 'new life'. The true story describes how many children had been lead to believe that they were orphans and were sent abroad away with no documentation or birth certificates, it's only until Margaret Humphrey starts to dig deeper that they learn they do have families. The very harrowing part is the way the children were treated when they arrived in their new country as many were abused and badly mistreated by those who were in a position of trust.

It is 19 July 2010, and I am using a short lull in my live webcast to start writing my first entry for the Genes Reunited blog. I have been Genes Reunited's 'resident genealogist' since six months after its start, and each month since summer 2003, I have spent an hour a month with these live sessions - getting on for one hundred of them - receiving questions from members all over the world, and doing my best to answer them. Most of the feedback I get from this is positive: just now (I'm checking back to the page every few minutes) someone's written 'I knew you would come up with another angle that I hadn't thought of. Its much appreciated'. I do remember once someone criticised me for being sarcastic. I looked back at the session he was referring to, and saw it had been a very busy night, with masses of questions, so I'd had to type very short answers: they were certainly not intended to sound sarcastic but in hindsight I could see that their very brevity could be misinterpreted that way! Luckily, recent sessions have seen a steady flow of questions, rather than an overwhelming flood, so I have been able to take a bit more time and try to provide a little bit more depth. Trouble is, if I only have one question to answer, I might decide to take five minutes answering it, but it's only when I send it off that I can find out if I have no, one, two or two dozen new questions waiting for me! But that's life.

At Genes Reunited we recently analysed our 750 million records and discovered that celebrities are not as original as they make think when it comes to naming their offspring! Our research showed that unusual baby names such as Suri, Cruz and Apple have been recorded for over 150 years.

Another end to the (working) week, although I appreciate that this is for many of you, your chance to get back into your family history research, but I think it is only fair to give an update on the site.

On Friday 24th June three members of the Genes Reunited Team set off to York from London Kings Cross station. We were really looking forward to attending the Yorkshire Family History Fair for the first time. We arrived at York racecourse late afternoon and started setting up our stand. We were situated on the Mezzanine along with The National Archives and local county record offices. We had a fantastic view over the entire race course! Once we were all happy with the stand and had checked that all the computers were working we set off to explore York by night. We had a lovely walk through the city, down the Shambles, a beautiful medieval street and to the Minster, York’s Gothic Cathedral. The Minster was founded in 627 and apparently is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The full title of the Minster is, The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York. At night it is completely lit up with spot lights making it look even more striking.

It's Friday night, and I am just trying to wrap up a number of things on my To Do list. I must apologise that this is not family tree/history related like Estelle and Rhoda's. Mine will come! Especially since the Passenger Lists and other Travel and Overseas records are now available. For those that have received a promotional email for the Passenger Lists, the photos and pictures surrounding the promotional text are courtesy of my great-grandfather's brother, Henry Turnbull (that is him top left), who emigrated to South Africa in 1904, and sent my grandmother a series of photos taken during the voyage. More of that to come.