Woman's link to suffragette

A Shropshire woman with a passion for researching her family tree has discovered she is related to one of the most active of suffragettes - Dora Montefiore.Rachel Skevington, of Bicton Heath, has also uncovered other famous family members including Dr Sir William Harvey, best known for discovering the circulation of blood, and Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey, who fought in the Battle of Trafalgar.

This month marks 90 years of women's suffrage.

Dora, who Mrs Skevington has discovered was a first cousin of her great-grandmother, was born in 1851 in Britain.

She emigrated to Australia and became interested in equal rights when her husband was lost at sea and she discovered she was not automatically eligible for guardianship of their children.

She took up the cause and became famous for barricading herself inside her home and refusing to pay taxes, as well as representing the Communist Party in later years.

Dr Harvey, 1578-1657, discovered blood was pumped around the body by the heart. He was also a physician to Charles I and assisted Sir Lancelot Brown in the care of Elizabeth I.

He is the brother of Mrs Skevington's nine times great-grandfather.

Mrs Skevington, 60, whose family tree starts in 1371, said she was delighted to have traced her roots so far back.

She said: "I really enjoyed doing it. I had help from a professor in America as well.

"I have quite a family to live up to," she added.

Mrs Skevington has also made contact with living family members after getting in touch with a relative through the internet, using websites ancestry.co.uk and genes reunited.

Rachel Skevington has found family links to distinguished figures.

Dorothy (Dora) Frances Montefiore (née Fuller), 1851-1933, was an English Australian women's suffragist and socialist. The first meeting of the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales was held at her home on March 29, 1891. She moved to England and joined the Women's Social and Political Union that had been formed by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst.

Sir Eliab Harvey, 1758-1830, was a famous admiral who fought with Nelson on the Temeraire at Trafalgar. Sir Eliab entered the service in 1771, became a commander in 1782 and a captain in 1783. On the recommencement of the war with France in 1803, he was appointed to the Temeraire and in command, he greatly distinguished himself at Trafalgar on October 21, 1805.

William Harvey, 1578-1657, was educated at Kings School, Canterbury and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He was Physician Extraordinary to King James I from 1618 and later Physician to King Charles I. At St Bartholomew's Hospital, he continued to study the function of the body's organs. These investigations led to his discovery of the circulation of the blood.