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!

What’s on your family history wish list?

The Shetland FHS monumental inscription project ‘could not have come soon enough’

6 million Irish Catholic parish register entries at FamilySearch

10 million new trade directory records at The Genealogist

New Chief Executive and Keeper of The National Archives, Kew

Essex Society for Family History celebrates 50th anniversary

Sharing the celebrations

New Scottish-Australian Convict dataset

Banyan developments

MyHeritageDNA new function: ‘Share DNA results with a collaborator’

Marriages & maps • Wayne Shepheard explains how combining parish records and 19th-century maps proved key to establishing the identities of two of his most elusive family members

CRIMEAN CONNECTION • A passing mention of her ancestor John Anthony Riboldi sends Gill Shaw on an exciting expedition – well, either that or a wild goose chase…

UPDATE ON THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE’S CONSULTATION: RETENTION OF PROBATE RECORDS • Richard Holt Discusses the latest information regarding the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on the storage and retention of original will documents based on new discoveries and the response to the petition

Dear Paul • This month, Paul Chiddicks goes beyond baptisms, marriages and burials, and has a look at the quirkier details sometimes hidden in the parish records

GETTING STARTED WITH family history • As you may have already realised, family history is absolutely fascinating, but… there’s a lot to learn. Help is at hand, however! Here’s our handy check list to keep you on track:

Sneaking up on a BRICK WALL • Persistence, a new research approach, and a smattering of well-earned genealogical good luck saw family historian Peter Day smashing down a brick wall that he’d been faced with for the past 15 years. Here he shares how he succeeded in the end…

The value of INTERVIEWING OLDER RELATIVES • Mell Turford, the Genealogy Guy UK, and podcaster at www.armchairgenealogy.com, explains why we should consider interviewing older relatives for the benefit of future generations, and gives us a step-by-step guide to doing it well

MELL’S TOP TIPS FOR INTERVIEWING YOUR RELATIVES

How can WEARE.XYZ help you? • Emerging from the drawing board in the spring of 2020 WeAre.xyz has now notched up four years. We caught up with founder, Simon Davies, to see how it’s developed and how it’s being used by family historians worldwide to record and share their family histories

DEATH AND TAXES Using the death duty registers • This month’s Family Tree Academy introduces us to the fascinating world of the death duty registers. Though a great many of them have been lost or destroyed, those that remain can be a treasure trove for the family historian, as tutor David Annal explains.

CREATING ‘QUICK AND DIRTY’ TREES • This month, Karen Evans gives us a guide to building ‘quick and dirty’ trees, and demonstrates how they can help to turbo-charge the results from our DNA matches

Tracing ancestors in the British armed forces in WWII • There’s never been a better time to discover what family members did during the Second World War, as the key records are increasingly going online, nor a more fitting time as we remember this 80th anniversary of the...