Debra Baker
AGRA Associate

I am London born and bred and know this City really well. My fascination with family history began early, inspired by weekends spent playing in cemeteries all over the South-East while my father poured over parish records in the days before computers. These childhood adventures included a fascination for headstones which sparked a lifelong curiosity about ancestry, particularly my female lineage.

I have been a professional genealogist for ten years, specialising in London records, Poor Law documentation, and paleogeography. I am an associate member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA), as well as a member of the Guild of One Name Studies, the Society of Genealogists, and the Sussex Family History Society. I am also a registered contractor for Ancestry.

My qualifications include both intermediate and advanced certificates from Pharos, complemented by numerous specialist courses with the University of Strathclyde, the Society of Genealogists, and the London Metropolitan Archives. I frequently attend lectures from leading experts and is currently pursuing a Diploma in Genealogy with the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies. In addition to my genealogical work, I am also passionate about Islington’s local heritage.

As an active member of St Luke’s History Group—established two decades ago to capture the memories of elderly residents—I have contributed to several publications, including ‘Finsbury Stories’ and ‘Exmouth Market – Now and Then’. The current project is to produce a publication about the hospitals in a small area of South Islington which were lost or destroyed before the start of the National Health Service.