Biggest family tree

A British pensioner believes he has produced the world's largest family tree after tracing nearly 10,000 relatives. Roy Blackmore, 76, has spent the past 28 years and £20,000 scouring census registers, cemeteries and archives to find the names of 9390 family members.

Included among them are Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror as well as a Wild West cowboy, Civil War soldiers and a former French king.

Blackmore has applied to the Guinness Book of World Records in the hope of claiming the title of having the world's largest documented family tree.

"When I started I never planned to go back that far but the more I looked the more interested I became," he told The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Britain.

"There have been some very frustrating times when I seemingly hit a brick wall.

"But there is always a way around or over an obstacle but I think I'll leave it as it is."

Blackmore's interest in exploring his heritage stemmed from being an orphan as a child.

He has now been able to trace his relatives back to the Cerdick family in AD500.