With an 8 page planning guide to help you both set family history goals - and achieve them - the Genealogy Planning Guide is here to help you make the most of your precious family history time.

Inside the latest issue of Family Tree you can also look forward to learning about:

Learn about the Prize Papers - the half a million documents that history almost forgot - but which are now being catalogued and digitised in an international project involving The National Archives

Heirlooms under the microscope. Janet Few considers their unique value to our family history and the importance of writing and sharing the stories they hold

Have you ever found a transcription terror? Paul Chiddicks reports on the mistakes in the records that come to challenge us

Voting time! Are you aware of how useful electoral registers can be for family history? David Annal urges us not to dismiss them too quickly

Discover the history of the East Indiamen - the vast trading vessels that sailed the world's oceans and the people who worked on them

How important is family history to our mental health and well-being? Researcher Emma Jolly reports the results of our reader survey

Uncover the importance of story-telling and learn about the new conference coming this spring from the Register of Qualified Genealogists

Plus: Jayne Shrimpton's Photo Corner, Diane Lindsay's Thoughts on... and Gill Shaw's Twiglets