RESEARCHING the past unearthed some surprises for two women studying their family trees.

Ivy Green, a retired catering lecturer at Darlington College of Technology, decided to return to the classroom to trace her ancestors through a genealogy course, only to find she was related to her tutor Margaret Manchester.

Miss Green's research revealed that in 1804 her relative Elizabeth Heads married one of Mrs Manchester's family.

The wedding to farmer John Storey, of Lanchester, County Durham, made the contemporaries sixth cousins.

Miss Green, who lives in Darlington, said: "We shouldn't have been too shocked.

"In the 1800s, people didn't travel very far and families married locally but it was still a bit of a surprise."

Miss Green began researching her family tree four years ago when relatives in New Zealand contacted her about their great-grandparents.

She said: "The information they sent me was incorrect so I started looking into it and got hooked. It's one of those hobbies."

The genealogy course looks at using historical sources including ancient records and websites.

Mrs Manchester, from Tow Law, County Durham, who has been studying the subject for 20 years, said: "It's like being a detective. The only problem is that each generation you go back, your family doubles and I now have more than 1,900 names on my family tree database."