How does it work?
With professional researcher David Annal as tutor in Family Tree, we give you the chance to:
1. Tackle research case studies
2. Learn about a broad range of records 3. Take your research to the next level.
In each issue of Family Tree we will be setting you new genealogy challenges to help you improve your research skills month after month.
Who can join?
The Family Tree Academy is available FREE to all readers of Family Tree.
How do I get started?
• Simply study the documents we supply and answer the questions we set. Turn to page 49 to begin.
• Write down your answers. • Then in the next issue (the August one, on sale from 10 July) we’ll provide you with the solutions. And the next batch of challenges. So, month after month you can grow your knowledge about the hobby you love.
New to family history?
Keep an eye out for the ‘L’ sign. We have so much useful info to help you, and starter challenges just right for newbies.
Keep organised!
Download your free Academy worksheets and fi le your answers in a ring binder: www.family-tree.co.uk/information/family-tree-academy/
Don’t miss an issue!
To make sure you don’t miss a single issue, turn to 26 and subscribe to Family Tree – subscribers also get free access to our expert video guides at www.family-tree.co.uk/videos
Here’s to gaining new genealogy know-how!
Tips for learning social history The value of researching the backdrop to our ancestors’ lives
Rich or poor, rural or urban – discover how to research the backdrop to your ancestors’ times and examine the social, economic and political landscapes within which they led their lives, with David Annal
In last month’s Family Tree Academy we looked at the importance of setting your ancestors’ lives in their local context. But we also need to consider the impact of the wider world; the social, economic and political landscapes which shaped the lives of everyone, from the poorest families living in urban squalor in London and the industrial towns and cities of South Wales, the Midlands and the north of England, to the wealthy landowning aristocrats who were beginning to feel the effects of a rapidly changing world.
And the 19th century was certainly one of enormous change. The population of England and Wales increased from 8.9 million in 1801 to over 30 million by the end of the century. The same period saw a marked shift from a predominantly rural society in the early 1800s to one in which, by 1901, nearly four out of every five people lived in an urban area.
Understand the economic changes
Understanding the factors behind this change can help us to appreciate why so many of our ancestors left the country parishes where their families had lived for generations to seek a new life in the towns and cities. Increasing agricultural mechanisation led to civil unrest in the 1830s while the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 is believed by many to have been the root cause of the agrarian depression of the 1870s and ’80s.