"I'm related to Churchill" - Thatcham woman's discovery

Sheila Carter (pictured right with her daughter) made the discovery after carrying on tracing her family tree after it was started by both her uncle and father.
Her discovery provednce and for all a long standing belief that she was the was fourth cousin of the so called ‘British Bulldog’.
Picking up the work that her father and uncle had begun on the family tree in the 1970s, Mrs Carter quickly established that she was the third great granddaughter of George Spencer the forth Duke of Marlborough on her father’s side.
The Duke himself was related to Churchill through their common ancestor the seventh Duke of Marlborough John Spencer Churchill - cousin of war-time leader, Sir Winston.
She said: "I’m very proud to be related to such an iconic British figure.
"His reputation not only lives on within my own family but with nation as a whole.
"I’m quite proud – it’s nice to know.
"It’s not really the sort of story you tell people as they don’t tend to believe you so I don’t talk about it at all.
"My close friends know I’m doing my family tree but I don’t think even they believe me."
Avid history fan, Mrs Carter, said that her uncle would travel across the country to various record offices and traced the tree back as far as Queen Anne's time.
She said: "I was too young then to take much notice – it was only in recent years that I have started dabbling."
It was only when her uncle died that the tree became lost within the family and so she faced the prospect of starting again.
But determination to discover what family secrets she could unearth, meant she joined a ancestry website and started discovering people in her family she did not know existed.
She has found people across the globe as well as having the confirmation that she was related to Sir Winston.
She said: "As you get older you start to wonder where you came from.
"It’s on going at the moment – I don’t think I’ll ever be finished."
She added: "It’s quite something special – not only do I have Churchill but there are lots of other bits too – you just keep finding things.
"I’m looking forward to what else I can find out."
Mrs Carter has traced her family tree through Ancestry.co.uk