Hi Norman,
I still enjoy genealogy. My Dad's family have an interesting mix of well known people, all on his mother's side of the family. She was Kathleen Featherstonhaugh, her family resided in Northumberland and what was known as County Durham. Her family have been traced back to Featherstone Castle, somehow the family name morphed into Featherstonhaugh for some family members. Kathleen as father was born in the family home The Hermitage in Chester-le-Street, which has now been turned sadly into luxury apartments. The first Featherstonhaugh to own the Heritage was one of my great grandfather's, Marmaduke Featherstonhaugh, he was a land owner around Chester-le-Street and a business man. The King and Queen attended his wedding according to the British Newspaper Archives. Marmaduke's grandson owned the Deptford Glassworks. one of his daughters, Bertha Katherine (Kitty) married Arthur Doctors of the Thompson Shipbuilders in Sunderland. Another grand daughter, Frances Hawke married Lawrence Parsons, the brother of Charles Algernon Parsons, the Tyneside engineering company that became Siemens. Frances and Lawrence Parsons son, William married Frances Lois Lister-Kaye, the (Countess of Rosse) and lived in Birr Castle, Offally in Ireland, their son Lawrence married Anne Messel who later became Princess Margaret's mother-in-law.