Family Tree UK

Learn how to trace your family tree! Every issue is packed with: family history research advice hands-on learning experiences to help you become an ancestor super-sleuth & step-by-step guides to show you the path to tracing the past. From vintage documents to the latest in DNA, we’re here to help you discover more! Get the latest in genealogy news, software, books, archives and expert answers. Plus enjoy those reader stories that remind what it means to trace your family story. Research & remember your roots with Family Tree!

How’s it going, genealogy-wise?!

RootsTech roundup 2024

Mapping the Development of a Place Through Time • Chris Paton discusses how more specialist records can add additional context to a family history, enabling you to research the locations your ancestors once lived and worked, and demonstrates how you too can undertake such a project with a case study

HOW SHOULD WE DEAL WITH OUR family secrets?

FAMILY HISTORY IN THE AI ERA

BOGUS COATS OF ARMS • There used to be advertisements in the press for little wooden shields painted with coats of arms to hang on your wall, asking the question: “Is there a coat of arms associated with your name?”. Richard Morgan makes a cool appraisal of the historic record of heraldry and the enduring popularity of bogus coats of arms

Pull -out & keep bow-tie chart • There’s nothing like a family tree chart for visualising your family history research so far. Turn the page to find a bow-tie chart to pull out, keep and – most importantly – fill in!

DNA TEST comparison guide • DNA advisor and avid family historian Karen Evans compares the pros and cons of the autosomal DNA tests on the market. Read on to learn which test is best for you; and if you’ve already taken a test, read on to ensure you’re getting the most from your DNA test results

CENSUS • In this month’s Family Tree Academy, David Annal responds to a reader query about a Bristol man who had at least five children, but left little in the way of baptism records, or proof of marriage…

THE ULSTER HISTORICAL FOUNDATION • Conleth Mullan introduces a unique organisation that combines genealogical research with the publication of historical and family history texts

STRANGER THAN FICTION • Researching her 2x great-aunt Catherine and her adoptive French family, Gill Shaw finds you can’t believe everything you read in the papers

Photo corner • Costume historian & photo-dating expert Jayne Shrimpton shares advice to help you date your unidentified pictures and so put names to the faces of the past

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED • With our experts Michelle Leonard, Shauna Hicks & David Frost

DIARY DATES • DISCOVER LEARNING EXPERIENCES TO ENJOY FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, PLUS ON-SITE EVENTS

Your letters • Clues, discoveries and the odd fact put right

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I just don’t GEDDIT! • Whether it’s an unlikely means of mastering mathematics, or an excuse to indulge in the tall tales of history, Diane Lindsay loves everything that genealogy research has to offer... to those who are willing to learn