How naive I was when I assumed it would be easy to research my 2nd G-grandfather, the watchmaker Joseph Dumbell, who was born in ~1823 in Liverpool, and his close relatives. The surname was unusual and with having an occupation of watchmaker (rather than something more common such as labourer or painter), I expected it would be pretty easy. But I was wrong. Trying to work out who belonged to which family and how all the watchmakers were related was the start of my interest in the Dumbell family of Liverpool, especially those who were clock and watchmakers. I've identified at least 10 who had that profession and plan to write up something detailed about them on how I believe they were all related.