Discover your family story

We recently put your questions to Laura House, genetic genealogist at Ancestry, and you can now watch the recording.

Join us for the May Family Tree Bonus Webinar, at which Simon Davies will be demonstrating how you can create a masterful home archive for your family history – complete with trees, maps, stories at more – using the dedicated WeAre.xyz tools. -

Curious about the origin of your surname? Whether your family name comes from an occupation, location, or ancestral trait, this guide will help you understand what your last name means and how to trace its roots.

A maiden name is a woman's surname before marriage, and uncovering it can reveal hidden branches of your family history. It’s not merely a detail to be remembered when researching, it’s a connection to her origins, her family, and her identity before her life changed through marriage, and it's vital for family history, as our guide to maiden names reveals.

Getting together with relatives sometime soon, or looking forward to a family catch up on Zoom? It's the perfect time to record more of those family stories! Find out more about the best ways to interview your relatives, how to record the stories, and much more with our in-depth guide.

Are you getting the most from the Ancestry website? Watch Karen Evans’s series of three webinars and learn how to use the popular family history website better! Improve your search skills, use the tools properly, find more ancestors.

Follow this straightforward four-step plan to start your family history with confidence – learn where to begin, how to uncover vital details, where to find essential records, and how to build your family tree online.

What is a second cousin? Or a third cousin once removed? Such relationship terms can often be very confusing, but they don't have to be. Work out who’s who on your family tree and don't forget to claim your free Family Tree Relationship Calculator.

In this guided tour to MyHeritage we show you tips to build your family tree on MyHeritage, how to find useful records, what you can get for free, unique MyHeritage tools, DNA pointers and more.

Curious about your UK ancestors and their lives? Census records are a treasure trove of information, offering snapshots of your family’s past every 10 years. Learn how to unlock details like their birthplaces, occupations, and living arrangements using this essential guide to the census returns covering the UK.

View the recording of the January Family Tree Brickwalls, Skills & Solutions Club webinar, at which Helen Tovey will be sharing thoughts and tips on making a genealogy plan – so that, over the year ahead, we can each look forward to accomplishing those genealogy goals and dreams that are closest to our hearts.

View the recording of the November Family Tree Brickwalls, Skills & Solutions Club webinar, at which Mandy Geary took us on a tour of Family Tree Maker 2024 for Mac.

Time spent deciding which family history subscription website (or websites) you need will help you save money and maximise your search time. Read on for pointers to consider when choosing which family history websites you need and what they offer to subscribers.

Discover some of the many benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for your genealogy research, and how you can use the technology carefully to avoid making mistakes.

Discover much more about using death records for family tree research, and how these key resources can help you find your ancestors, with our in-depth guide.

Want to uncover your family’s story through DNA? Taking a DNA test for ancestry can open the door to long-lost relatives, hidden heritage, and exciting family history discoveries. In this beginner’s guide, genealogist Karen Evans explains how autosomal DNA tests work, what your ethnicity estimate really means, and how to interpret DNA matches. We’ll also compare the best DNA tests for family history so you can choose the right one and start building your DNA family tree today.

Learn ways to find ancestors for free: discover the must-do steps to take and the most useful websites to use. From building a family tree to tracking down new clues, there are free ways to go do this. The resources mainly help you trace UK ancestors free. We have also included some paid websites - focusing on any records that they provide free access to.

Marriage records can reveal new generations, confirm family connections, and provide vital clues for building your family tree. Find out what information is available and how to obtain marriage certificates in this in-depth guide.

The lives of our ancestors are punctuated by the dates of those vital life events: birth, marriage, and death. These records can provide much more information than just when these important events took place, shedding light on your ancestor's family, where they lived, and even their occupation. Find out more in our guide to using birth certificates.

Discover how to find your ancestors' occupations, where to look for family history occupation records, and what those old job titles mean. This guide covers records to help you trace ancestors' Victorian occupations, plus old jobs in the 18th, 19th and early 20th century.

View the recording of the September Family Tree Brickwalls, Skills & Solutions Club webinar, at which Wayne Shepheard took us on a tour of the free family history program, Legacy.

Here we show you how to make a simple family tree chart. First you need to gather some clues. Then all you need is pens and paper. Create a family tree today! Plus we include tips for how to find family history information.

View the recording of the July Family Tree Brickwalls, Skills & Solutions Club webinar, at which Phil Isherwood reviewed and provided a tour of genealogy software, Family Historian 7.0.

Discover how to build your family tree on the Ancestry website with this step-by-step guide. Learn how to add family members, download, save, print or even delete your family tree. Find out how to make your tree public or private, and learn whether your comments and notes can be seen by other people... Read on to find out all this and more and become more confident building your online family tree

View the recording of the Bonus webinars: Palaeography: reading skills for Scottish records

View the recording of the December Family Tree Brickwalls, Skills & Solutions Club webinar, at which Philip Manley tutored us in ‘How to actually do family history, from laying good foundations, to building good research skills’.

View the recording of the October 2024 Family Tree Genealogy Gadgets Club webinar, at which Lorna Kinnaird tutored us in ‘How to record & store family history research: some useful suggestions’.

View the recording of the July Family Tree Study Club meeting, at which Dr Kathie Ross tutored us in an introduction to palaeography. Learn tips and tricks to improve your skills reading old handwriting and deciphering family history documents

Discover why and how to create a research plan with Lorna Kinnaird in this Genealogy Gadgets Club presentation.

Organise your research with this download featuring an ancestor record sheet, family record sheet, and research log.