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Welcome

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FAMILY HISTORY NEWS

Karen Clare reports on the latest genealogy news. Send

Project serves up taste of Neolithic ancestors’ food

Researchers with an appetite for archaeology will be

War Memorials Register launches with millions of names online

War Memorials Register launches with millions of names

STORIES FROM THE CEMETERY

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has opened

Final year to preserve Lives stories

The groundbreaking Lives of the First World War digital

GET YOUR GUIDE TO HERITAGE DAYS OUT

The team behind Family Tree and History Scotland magazines

Keepsakes competition reveals family history gems

Asnippet of Queen Victoria’s dress and the cap badge

LATEST RECORDS RELEASES

• TheGenealogist.co.uk has released the records of

Findmypast creates world tree

Findmypast has created a new global family tree to

Village WW1 Armistice project remembers a lost generation

A village is holding a series of events to commemorate local menfolk killed in WW1, including the first installation of a poignant nationwide project. Victoria Williams, of Tarporley Remembers, reports

Real-life stories now online

Check out the new Real-Life Stories section on the

DELVE INTO FAMILY HISTORY AT FESTIVAL

A record 100 churches and chapels are throwing opening

YOUR FREE RECORDS

At Family Tree we’ve teamed up with UK family history

walking ancestral homelands

Step into the past with David Venner as he walks in the footsteps of his forebears along a 50-mile waterside trail in Somerset, which links his ancestral home near the river’s source with his own birthplace, near its mouth. Along the way, he discovers family connections with the countryside and towns back to the 16th century, and the records that have helped him trace them. Follow his suggestions to shed light on the lives of your ancestors too

Women’s war work

Explore the serious, sublime and the ridiculous facets of family history in this genealogical miscellany. This issue, Tom Wood learns about the records relating to the Women’s Land Army in WW2, a singularly interesting first name, a heart-warming reunion late in life and a death by anthrax

Get you r hands onhistory

In the British Isles there are thousands of archives, housing millions of documents. This wealth of treasures spanning centuries of history isn’t just saved for posterity, it is very much accessible to us today. Helen Tovey explores a round-up of the nation’s key archives and their websites and shows the ways in which we can use them to find clues about our family’s history

3 questions my mother left unanswered…

Despite having grown up in a respectable home where curiosity was encouraged, following the death of his mother, unanswered questions began to surface in Bernard Barker’s mind

BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE

The housing crisis is nothing new, and Amanda Randall explores the history of creating towns purposefully built with the aim of improving the lives of our ancestors. From Saltaire, to Swindon and Central Lancashire – it’s a history of communities that reaches back to the 1800s and even 1700s

A breaking point survived

Keith Gregson investigates the German Spring Offensive of 1918, a series of attacks by the Germans along the Western Front, towards the end of a long and brutal war. Many of our ancestors would have seen action in these battles, been taken prisoners of war or lost their lives, creating a lasting impact on countless families and communities

The lunch hour genealogist

Being busy doesn’t mean you have to neglect your favourite hobby, you can still learn in your lunch break! Squeeze just 60 minutes of family history into your daily routine and you’ll soon start to see your tree blossom. So settle down with your lunch and tuck into Rachel Bellerby’s genealogy treats

How did you do?

Read on to find out the answers to last issue’s Family Tree Academy challenges. Our Academy tutor David Annal explains all

Join the Family Tree Academy & become a skilled family historian

Running all through 2018, the Academy learning experience will help you discover more about the records, resources and research skills you need to become the best genealogist you can be. We have case studies for you to pit your wits against, documents for you to decipher, old handwriting for you to tackle, and more…

Just starting your family history?

If you’re wondering how to begin tracing your family tree, here are three simple steps:

Banished from Britain: The Irish poor

Destitute and dispossed, paupers from Ireland could find themselves forcibly sent back to their homeland, from England, Wales and Scotland, if unable to support themselves financially. Chris Paton finds rich pickings for genealogists in these lesserknown records of poverty-stricken families

Books

FATHER OF THE MODERN CIRCUS ‘BILLY BUTTONS’: THE LIFE & TIMES OF PHILIP ASTLEY

Great War memorials project

Simon Wills finds out about a wide-ranging memorials project that is proving to be a wonderful digital resource for family historians researching Warwickshire men who lost their lives during the First World War

The Family Tree SUBS CLUB

Welcome to the Family Tree Subscriber Club page, where

The men who said no

During 2018, Julie Goucher is spotlighting a website each month that is either unusual, overlooked or simply fascinating. It is an ideal way to expand and bring to life your family history. This issue she discovers a thought-provoking WW1 website

Techy tips for family historians

Make the most of digital devices, websites, apps and gadgets, with genealogical web guru Paul Carter

Spotlight on… Bedfordshire Family History Society

If you have Bedfordshire kin you’ll find a warm welcome at Bedfordshire Family History Society, which has been helping people explore their ancestry for more than 40 years, write Geoff Sewell and Mary Wooldridge

Twiglets

Diarist Gill Shaw charts the rollercoaster ride of researching her family history

A taste of home

The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) served thousands of members of the Armed Services at home and abroad during World War II, and your relatives may have been among them. However, they did not get the recognition they perhaps deserved, says John Leete, who has researched those who served in the NAAFI to learn more about their invaluable contribution to the war effort

ADVICE…

With our experts Jayne Shrimpton, Emma Jolly, Mary

DIARY DATES

Find or post diary dates at www.family-tree.co.uk/Events

MAILBOX

An impressive dream of centuries of censuses created by family historians, and more views on the moral dilemma of when should we share our ancestor discoveries, and when it is best to keep quiet…

THOUGHTS ON… ‘I need to find her’

Haunted by the unfinished story of a beautiful great-aunt who died young in childbirth, Diane Lindsay just wishes she knew what happened…