Family historians are resourceful, resilient researchers – and each week at Family Tree we receive dozens of emails and letters from people diligently tracing their ancestors’ lives. And this perseverance really does pay off – as each of us could testify, newbie genealogist or old hand. By sticking at it, the family trees we create, the stories we learn, the fascinating, moving, accounts of lives once led that we discover are intriguing records of our families from times gone by.
This issue, we’ve gathered together 61 commonly asked family history questions – and we hope that the answers may provide just the prompt you need to take an aspect of your investigations further (see page 35). We also discuss a particularly knotty problem regarding a DNA dilemma (see page 22) and – for me – this difficult research issue shows just how important knowledge of our family histories, of where we’ve come from, is. We might start with an organised research plan and a love of old documents, but the more we get into family history, the more we realise that it’s not just about getting the facts straight. It’s about learning and listening to a story that will become close to your heart.