The census also reveals the details of Herbert's siblings. We can see that his eldest sister, Frances, was born in Warwickshire four years earlier. This suggests that the family relocated from the south-east to the Midlands. Further research shows that in April 1954, Joseph had moved with his new wife to Shuckburgh Park, near Daventry, where he took up the post of head gardener.

Joseph lost this job at Shuckburgh because according to some stories, of an outspoken disagreement with his employer. The family then moved on to Bromley, Kent where Joseph took over a china shop from his cousin. It was in 1866 that Herbert George Wells, or Bertie, was born – the couple's fourth and last child. His elder sister had sadly died two years earlier, as recorded in the death indexes on TheGenealogist.

The shop was not a great money maker and so H G Wells's mother returned to Uppark between 1880 and 1893 – this time as a housekeeper. This allowed Bertie to spend part of his late boyhood at Uppark and so explore its library, opening him up to literature. A telescope there also allowed him to peer into space and wonder about the world beyond.

With his middle class family in an impoverished state, the teenaged Wells was briefly apprenticed to a draper. He didn't enjoy the work and was rejected after the first month's trial He then found a post as a student-teacher, assisting one of his uncles in a National School. This ended when his relative was fired, after having his qualifications called into question. Bertie was then apprenticed to a chemist, but again didn't make the grade. As a stopgap he entered a grammar school. The head wanted to improve the school's results, and spotting Bertie's potential to pass exams, gave him free board.

Another spell as a draper's apprentice was then forced upon Bertie by his mother. As Wells approached 17, he persuaded his parents to let him return to the grammar school, this time as an assistant. From here he won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science later (Imperial College London), studying under the great zoologist TH Huxley. This period inspired Well's science fiction writing. His socialist politics drew him to join the Fabian Society, and he became a writer of textbooks, short stories and several reviews.

The Time Machine (1895) was the first of his hugely popular and prescient 'scientific romances', which foresaw the splitting of the atom, travel to the moon and aerial warfare. He was a prolific novelist, famous for writing science fiction and also for his works of comic realism.

As he grew into his twenties and attending college in London, Bertie fell in love with his cousin Isabel Wells, whom he had met while lodging with his Aunty Mary. On 31 October 1891, the two married and by using the BMD records on TheGenealogist, we can find out the address where Herbert lived, his aunt and Isabel lived, which was in the St Pancras area of London.

Well's marriage to Isabel wasn't to last. By searching the records again, we can find his second marriage. This time, it was to a woman who he called Jane; however, his new wife, who had formerly been his student, was really called Amy Catherine Robbins. It is worth remembering, in searching for ancestors, that they may have had different legal names from those they went by in everyday life.

By 1901, HG Wells was doing well. He and Jane were now living in Folkestone, Kent, in a house that was built specially for his family.

Moving forward to 1911, however, we can see that Spade House had been sold. The Wells were now living in Hampstead, North London.