Tracing Ancestors In The UK

Not so long ago it would have been impossible to find out anything about your ancestors without leaving your house and travelling to a range of different archives, libraries and record offices all over the country.  I remember that time, particularly visiting St Catherine’s House (pictured right) in my lunch hour in the 70s and [...]

Tracing ancestors has never been so popular – or so easy. But this speed and ease can lead to mistakes. So, if you are an amateur genealogist, it is ESSENTIAL that you take heed of the following guidelines.

Continuing my theme of digging down into your ancestors’ lives, here’s another example of a source that could turn up some information about your ancestor -  local history books or pamphlets.  Whilst most professional historians would advocate using primary sources for research, I would always encourage anyone to find out what has been published about [...]

In my general theme of the last few weeks of getting to know your ancestors better than just knowing when & where they were born, married and died, here is another great resource: UK newspaper archives. In the past, it was necessary to have a definite date in mind in order to search newspapers, but [...]

To continue from my previous post (How to Search for Wills and Probate in England)… Once you have received the will you ordered you will be eager to get on and read it and see if it contains information about other ancestors, or whether it gives you the link between families that you are looking [...]

With taxation being a fairly topical subject – and also in the light of my last post – I thought it would be interesting to have a look at some of the taxes that our ancestors had to suffer in the past. Finding out about the taxes people had to pay in the past can [...]

At some point in your ancestry searches you are going to hit a brick wall.  Even the most experienced genealogists will have difficulty tracing a particular ancestor at some point.  While it is not always possible to get beyond this sticking point, there are several things you should do that can provide that essential chink [...]

If you’re looking for something a little out of the ordinary for Christmas, why not buy some genealogy gifts for your loved ones? If you have a genealogy enthusiast amongst your family or friends, there are plenty of products to choose from that will make an unusual and welcome Christmas gift. Or – perhaps you [...]

The Origins Network has just made available a series on the City of London Poor Law Records.  For anyone who is researching their London genealogy, this is a resource that you should not miss.  Poor law records are underused by many genealogists, yet they contain extremely valuable biographical information that you will not find elsewhere. [...]