It’s a hobby that can be associated with dusty archives and silent reading rooms.

But a historian from Chippenham is taking family history into the town’s pubs and cafes.

Genealogist Lucy Whitfield holds free drop-in sessions aimed at helping people to start researching their past.

The 47-year-old onetime journalist says she comes away from the sessions ‘buzzing’ – particularly as much of her time is spent working alone on research projects.

“I am absolutely passionate about sharing ordinary people’s history with ordinary people.

“I want to encourage people to take on the historical environment around them. Because we are so familiar with it, we don’t always see it. I want people to absorb it and care about it.”

Lucy, who is a professional historian and genealogist, says pubs can be great places to discuss family history because people are usually relaxed and ready to chat.

“I have got a very good brain for dates and connections. I am pretty fast at this, and I know countless different tricks that someone coming to research their family may not know.”

Lucy caught the family history bug as an 11-year-old in Bristol asked to find out where her parents and grandparents came from for a school project.

That led her and her mum to interview as many family members as possible to create a paper family tree that is still in use today.

Lucy loves the hit TV series Who Do You Think You Are? and understands why celebrities on the BBC1 show can get so emotional about ancestors they never knew existed.

“It’s family. You will have touched your grandmother’s hand, and they will have touched their grandmother’s hand. There’s that tactile connection. Their successes are your successes, their tragedies are your tragedies.”

Lucy is writing a book due out next year about interesting women from North Wiltshire, and says the female side can often throw up the most captivating characters.

“Men may follow the same professions as their fathers, but women marry up and marry down.

“I would always encourage people to look at things from a woman’s point of view.”

Lucy became a professional genealogist in 2016, and has been offering her drop-in sessions since last year.

 Lucy’s regular drop-in spots are the Old Road Tavern and Three Crowns pubs, the Cousin Normans café and the town’s library.

She will be at the Old Road Tavern from 5pm to 6.30pm on August 16, and the library from 4.30pm to 6.30pm on August 18.

She will then be at the Three Crowns on August 22 from 5pm to 6.30pm.