Dr SIMON WILLS is a genealogist, historian and journalist and a regular contributor to Family Tree, the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? and other magazines. He writes mainly about maritime history and genealogy, but he also has a special interest in health and disease in the past. He has given presentations and interviews all around the UK for history, genealogy and literary festivals, and for organisations such as the BBC, National Trust and National Archives. His most recent publications include a guide to maritime photographs, Tracing Your Seafaring Ancestors, and a popular account of our forebears' illnesses, How Our Ancestors Died.