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!

Determination, inspiration, skill & a chance discovery … all in a day’s work for a family historian

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The latest from FAMILY TREE PLUS

NEWS IN BRIEF

Knitted wartime exhibition extended due to popularity

English Heritage encourage us to send posctards this summer

MARRIAGES Looking beyond the official record • Births, marriages and deaths are the three building blocks on which family historians base their research. This month, Family Tree Academy tutor David Annal explains why there may be more than one source of information about our ancestors' marriages

What did your ancestors do in WAR WEAPONS WEEK? • The chance discovery of a certificate, awarded to her mother in 1941, set genealogist Janet Smith on a World War II research path with a difference. Discover more about the nationwide range of community events – held to raise funds for the machinery of war … from battleships and Lancaster bombers to rifles and gas masks.

BOOK REVIEWS • Reflections on recent publications of family history and or wider history-based interest.

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO DNA PAINTER Six Tools Every Genealogist Should Know • DNA Painter offers far more than chromosome mapping. Here’s how to use its six key tools to make sense of your DNA results and move your research forward. Donna Rutherford is here to show you the way

TAGGING ALONG • Gill Shaw finds herself back among the Staffordshire wills and probate records – and they seem to be hiding a tragic turn of events..

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Part 4 FROM HOME TO HORIZON & understanding the real person beyond the records • Welcome to our step-by-step guide with genealogist Julie Johnson. Over the coming months, she will take you on a journey – telling the story of an ancestor’s life, from cradle to grave. Use the worksheets accompanying the series, to help you gather similar records for your own ancestors so that you may tell their stories too.

POOR LAW SETTLEMENT DISPUTES • During the operation of the Poor Law Unions, parishes would often disagree over which of them should have responsibility for a pauper’s upkeep. Here, Nicola Waterfall examines the case of Edith Scully, a ‘pauper lunatic’, and the long drawn-out battle over her settlement

RECORDING YOUR RESEARCH EFFECTIVELY How to be more confident in your family tree • Following her article in last month’s Family Tree, genealogist Dr Karen Cummings returns to give us lots of useful advice on how to keep effective and robust research notes, and why this is crucial to our success as family historians

BUILDING CONFIDENCE IN DNA TESTING some basic principles • DNA testing is a topic that can raise expectations and worries in equal measure. This month, our DNA advisor Karen Evans addresses some common concerns about the process, and tells us where we can learn more

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YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Photo corner • Costume historian and photo dating...