Join the Family Tree Academy & become a skilled family historian

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Check out our bumper guide to your 101 must-search family history sites!

Spanish flu pandemic explored 100 years on

Karen Clare reports on the latest genealogy news. If you have a story to share, email it to editorial@family-tree.co.uk

New RAF Stories digital resource

Minnie Driver at the RAF Stories launch event. Watch

Free Great War centenary coin

The London Mint Office is offering a free coin to commemorate

Discover your DNA story at Family Tree Live

Pioneering DNA company Family Tree DNA is sponsoring

Stories from the crypt

Some 5,00 0 free events are taking place over two weekends

YOUR FREE RECORDS

WO RTH £30! At Family Tree we’ve teamed up with UK

To tell or not to tell ?

Whenever and however family secrets come to light, there’s always the dilemma of whether to tell all, or to hold some secrets back. As a professional researcher Kim Cook has had to deal with such dilemmas first hand. Here she shares her solutions to handling sensitive issues

The mother line

After his granddaughter was born, Bernard Barker decided to research two centuries of women on her family tree so she can know about her female British ancestry in the years to come. In doing so he realised just how far these incredible women have come from their humble roots…

A tailor’s life for me

From bespoke garment-making in London’s well-to-do West End to the poor clothing sweatshops of the East End, Melody Amsel- Arieli investigates the working lives of tailor ancestors

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.

Document know-how

For most people, particularly those living in rural

Improve your palaeography skills

This is a page from the Admissions and Discharges book

Research thinking skills

Your case study chall enge

Dig deeper online!

Chris Paton explores how to find advanced resources on the web that can help to push your research beyond the basics using a mixture of free and paid-for resources

Twiglets

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

Your ancestors & the Black Death

How did the Plague affect our families in London? Simon Wills interviews a historian who examines its impact and all the new evidence in his latest book

Pinpoint your ancestors’ property

Explore the details found in the Valuation Office survey records and maps with Nick Thorne – and consider how you can use this new online map collection for your own research too

Taken a DNA test? Now what?

DNA tests are becoming ever more popular but the results can seem bewildering can’t they? Help is at hand, however, with family historian Karen Evans’s practical advice for making sense of your DNA test results for your family history research

Books

Karen Clare reviews a new book offering insight into how climate change, disease and natural disasters impacted on the lives of our British ancestors in centuries past

TECHY TIPS for family historians

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

Your questions answered

With our panel of experts Jayne Shrimpton, Mary Evans, Simon Fowler, Christine Wibberley and Anthony Marr

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. It’s time to tuck into Rachel Bellerby’s genealogy treats

Remembering Arctic Convoy veterans

Each issue Julie Goucher spotlights an unusual website to help you take your research in a new direction

DIARY DATES

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

Your LETTERS

Tracing Edwardian triplets, thoughts on BMDs from around the globe, and memories of ‘Dad’

When I was maybe six

Diane Lindsay recalls the day as a young girl when she learned a valuable lesson or two about life – and horses – from her WW1-veteran grandfather

Stuck ? Why not join your local family histor y society?

You know how it is. You’ve been gradually piecing together

Losing the land of our ancestors

The lands inhabited by our forebears were physically and environmentally very different places than they are today. Wayne Shepheard looks at the impact of Mother Nature on our landscape over time

Hillingdon Family History Society

John Symons introduces a family history society for those with ancestors from the north west of Greater London

THE FAMILY HISTORY WEBSITE DIRECTORY

Packed with a handpicked selection of 101 top genealogy

How to create a better website

Show off your family history findings in style and make new connections across the globe. Paul Carter shows you how to build an awesome online home for your research

Investigating murder

Patricia O’Sullivan’s family could be a family historian’s dream… apart from one dark chapter involving a murder on the other side of the world