Researching family history could be just a collection of dry dates but if these dates can be tied in, even tenuously, with historical and social changes then family history becomes much more interesting and allows us a chance to see just how much our ancestors have influenced who we are today. The present Vandal family dates from the marriage, in 1893, of Isabella Jemmott to George Larsen Vandal. There is some mystery concerning the history of our family before that date. ‘Less reputable’ family members, occasions or incidents were not ‘spoken about in front of the children’. Several unusual family stories have been circulated but since the older members of the family have now passed away there is no longer a chance of substantiating these stories. Therefore, to complete the Vandal family picture we have to start from a known fact or date and dig through the sparse, existing parish records and the more comprehensive Statutory Records of Births, Marriages and Deaths to make our family tree and our family history as accurate as possible.