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Welcome

Are you into the idea of tracing your family history? Of course you are – and you’ve come to just the right place for advice and inspiration to research your family tree…

IN BRIEF

An £8 million fundraising project has been launched

Scrapbooks site reveals stories of WW1 nurses

Acollection of nurses’ scrapbooks, diaries, poems and

Weather project blows in a new digital resource

Family history researchers can now use a free website

Memorial walk unveiled

A community project has officially opened a memorial

Magdalene institutions records online

A searchable database of thousands of documents detailing

Rare tex ts from 1,000 years of history go online for free

Rare tex ts from 1,000 years of history go online for

Centuries of lost Irish records set to be digitally recreated

Centuries of lost Irish records set to be digitally

Project mapping burial grounds

A four-year project to develop an interactive website

PIONEERING HOSPITAL MARKS 100 YEARS

Apioneering heart and lung hospital that began life

YOUR FREE RECORDS

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

The Goode life

Explore the serious, sublime and the ridiculous facets of family history in this genealogical miscellany. This issue, Tom Wood discovers a hardworking agricultural labourer, rewarded in old age, and some family history mysteries

International Bomber Command Centre Archives

High on a hill overlooking the city of Lincoln, an awe-inspiring memorial has taken shape. Angela Youngman investigates the significance of this for the people who served in Bomber Command and to their descendants todayf

Discover the answers to last issue’s challenges 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…

Your documents & sources challenge Studying records of death

Your documents & sources challenge Studying records

Improve your palaeography skills

In the first Family Tree Academy we asked you to have

FROM THE WORLD OF TECH

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

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

A history of houses in miniature

When researching our ancestors’ daily lives the detail is all-important. Here Sadie Brown explores a creative way to add a new dimension to family history, exploring and remembering their homes in miniature

Hot off the press

Keith Gregson pays homage to the online British Newspaper Archive, which could hold the key to solving your family mysteries

Researching French records in 7 steps

Keith Hayward has been researching family in England and France for decades. Here he shares some simple steps to help you get to grips with the records of France

Books

THE RESEARCHER’S GUIDE TO AMERICAN GENEALOGY, 4TH EDITION

Book news in brief

A second revised edition of popular FIBIS research

Headstone hunter

Find that Memorial Inscription is a website set up by a family historian for fellow researchers to share unique details of the inscriptions on ancestors’ headstones and memorial plaques, many of which disappear over time. Simon Wills finds out more

Celebrating the centenary of the RAF 1918-2018

From the fictional exploits of Biggles, to the all-too-real role of the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, in its century of service the RAF has gained a place in both the hearts and the history of the nation. Over the decades hundreds of thousands of our ancestors will have had connections to this indomitable organisation. Here Helen Tovey runs through some of the records to help you ace your research

Coming next in Family Tree

For the last hundred years the Royal Air Force has

What no one tells you about publishing your family history book

If you are writing a family history book that you hope will be read as widely as possible, you’ll need to acquire the skills to sell it. Luckily Belinda Griffin is here with a publishing bootcamp that will get you flexing those marketing muscles

HOW TO START DOING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY

June Terrington has been researching her family history for years and it’s a hobby she truly loves. If you’d like to begin tracing your family tree, read on, and she’ll show you those steps you need to take

Researching a WW1prisoner of war

Using treasures from the family archive alongside some wonderful digitised records, genealogist Judith Russell was able to trace her husband’s WW1 ancestor who was a prisoner of war, and lived to tell the tale. Here she reveals her secret research weapons, which you could use to trace your PoW heroes too

Spotlight on…Doncaster & District Family History Society

Spotlight on… Doncaster & District Family History

Gertrude Jekyll & her family roots

Nick Thorne discovers the link between the spinster gardener, London bankers and the story of Jekyll and Hyde

Inspiring records

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 the Oxford Archivists’ Consortium

Different strokes

Sally George paints a rich picture of the lives of her ancestors, who range from fishermen and farm workers to sailors, shipwrights and even a policeman-turned opiate trader. Their movements have left a trail of descendants stretching from Yorkshire to Scotland, and Wales to East Anglia, and their ancestral tales continue to echo down the decades…

YOUR Q&A

With our experts Jayne Shrimpton, Emma Jolly, Mary Evans, Simon Fowler, David Frost and Christine Wibberley

BRICKWALL SPECIAL

QI am researching my 3x greatgrandmother Charlotte

DIARY DATES

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

Twiglets

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

MAILBOX

How should three centuries of industry be best remembered? Should recent records remain private? And is it okay to salvage a grave? Your letters this issue are thought-provoking indeed…

My love-hate relationship

Turning on the computer late one night for a spot of indulgent research before bed, Diane Lindsay was confronted by a family historian’s worst technological nightmare…