I have just joined this list, though I imagine some listers will know me from others!   I have just begun to research the ancestry and Suffolk roots of Ruth Rendell, one of the world's best-known and best-selling crime novelists, creator of the Chief Inspector Wexford character, etc. She also writes as Barbara Vine.   I have discovered that she descends from the PETLEY family of Lavenham. MARY PETLEY, baptised at Lavenham November 27 1783, was her gt-gt-gt-grandmother and married CHRISTIAN FREDERIC GRASEMANN, who was of German descent, possibly from Frankfurt am Maine, at St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch, London, on May 1 1810. They had at least 13 children between 1811 and 1827, all born in London.   The direct line runs from one of the sons, John Charles Grasemann, born July 9 1820, through two ancestors both called Frederick Charles Christian Grasemann to Ruth Rendell's father Arthur Grasemann born in 1900 at Plymouth, He married Ebba Elise Kruse at West Ham in 1929 and Ruth was born Ruth B Grasemann also at West Ham in the March quarter of 1930. She is, of course, a life peer as Baroness Rendell of Babergh CBE.   Mary Petley had a sister Sophia, also of Lavenham, who married John Jacob Grasemann (probably a brother or cousin of Christian Frederic) at St John's, Hackney, in 1825. Both Petley girls appear to have been the daughters of John Petley and Elizabeth Willis of Lavenham, according to one particular website.   My apologies if this topic has been raised before but I couldn't see anything in the list archives, Glad to receive any connections or info on the earlier ancestry.   Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/