Lost and found

Kirsty Gray turned her back on a career in teaching to pursue her hobby as a genealogist. JANET HUGHES finds out why and the stories she's encountered on the way

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If you had to find a word to sum up your first impression of Kirsty Gray it could well be colourful.

Smiley promotional photographs of her in funky, multi-coloured sweatshirts do not suggest this is a woman who enjoys rooting through dusty old documents, and her speech and personality betray a woman who has more in common with her vibrant image than her surname.

Colourful also suits her work because what Kirsty does best is add colour to those black and white records to build a picture of missing people, past and present.

For Kirsty is a celebrated people finder. Whether it's a brother looking for a long-lost sister, a council bereavement officer seeking a rough sleeper's next of kin or a solicitor trying to find the beneficiaries of a £1.5 million inheritance, they come to her because of her reputation for being able to find people from the scantest of information.

What started as a hobby grew into a commercial venture run from her West Country bedroom and is now a 24/7 international operation with permanent offices and 40 plus employees carrying out research around the world.

This 47-year-old chose purple, the colour traditionally associated with luxury and magic, to brand her business in 2013, a year after she founded it.

Unbeknown to her she had topped a poll which asked people to vote for 'Rockstars' of the normally staid genealogy world and it had brought her global recognition.

"I did not know anything about it until somebody told me I was top in the UK," shrugs expressive Kirsty while pulling a face that says 'how on earth did that happen?!

"They don't do it anymore but at the time I was catapulted into being number one in the UK and the whole time they ran it I was the only Brit to be in the top ten in the world."