Richard Edmunds was born in the South of England, he studied as a Bachelor of the Arts in  History and Archaeology at The University of Birmingham.

 

His area of interests include English, Irish and Scottish social history and genealogy, and the immigrant communities to the British Isles in the Tudor and Stuart Periods, their roots, development and the wider contribution they have made to British society.

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Passionate about genealogy and the past, his own ancestry is a cmix of English, Irish, Scottish, French and Romany, and well reflects the cultural diversity of East London, where his maternal family lived for over 500 years, mostly centred in and around Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and West Ham.

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His earliest studies focused on the refugee French Huguenot community of East London, and include:

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• The Huguenot Ivory Turners

• The Huguenot Clock Makers of Spitalfields

• The Early Huguenot Silk Weavers of Spitalfields and London 1550-1720

• The Dubois Family, in France, England & South Carolina 1696-1735

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He has had several articles published in Romany Routes, the Journal of the Romany and Traveller Family History Society, and is the author of a two part work, published by the charity RTFHS in Autumn 2017 and Spring 2018:

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The Early Romany Boswells, A Family History 1650-1810

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• Part 1: The Early Boswells & Famous Boswells

• Part 2: Boswells in Parish Records & The Blewitts, Scamps and Lovells

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A further six  books focusing on the history of Britain's early Romany population, were published from spring 2018 to autumn 2019, by Anglo-Romany Heritage Publications:

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• Gypsies in Tudor England (1485-1603)

• Early British Gypsy Families (in five volumes):

 

​Other books include Discovering the Kray Family Tree, published in February 2018, the first in a new series of books concentrating on the ancestry of famous and infamous figures of historic East London, Paths of Freedom -The Bob Marley Family Tree, published in May 2018, to commemorate the 37th Anniversary of the death of the Jamaican musical legend and cultural icon, and Inside the Beatles Family Tree, published Winter 2018,  a journey of discovery into the ancestry of Britain’s most celebrated popular music band, and their cultural roots in Ireland, Scotland and Liverpool.

 

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