As a professional genealogist, most of my work involves tracing ancestors back into history. However, recently I have noticed a growing interest to find living relatives descended from ancestors. I have discovered a few cousins myself, and it is certainly a delightful experience to communicate with someone who shares a ... Read more (952 words)

Genealogy research is exciting, and in the process we accumulate numerous documents, files, photographs and notes. But I sometimes wonder what the point of having all this information is unless we have some way of telling the story, the 'what happened', that will interest and inspire the future generations. How ... Read more (1027 words)

An ancestor's will can be very useful for discovering or confirming family relationships where they are missing in other records - but even when they don't give this information, they are an essential resource if you want to know more about how your ancestor lived. However, probate in England can ... Read more (825 words)

People are interesting. Every single person who ever lived has a story to tell. When you scratch the surface of any human being you will find a rich range of events that go to make up who that person is: a variety of happy, sad, tragic, celebratory, inspirational and all ... Read more (769 words)

If are a white American or Australian, it is very likely that you have ancestors who originated in the UK. This is why British family history is of great interest to many people in these countries who are attempting to trace their family trees.As a professional genealogist working in the ... Read more (614 words)

I started tracing ancestors way back in the early 80s when the internet had not yet been born, and the computer was yet to become a household item. When I first began to get interested in my heritage, the first place to visit was St. Catherine's House near the Aldwych ... Read more (647 words)

If you have spent some time tracing ancestors in the UK, you will probably know that most online resources will only take you as far back as the early 1800s. If you want to trace your ancestors further back, you will need to use offline resources. After the internet, your ... Read more (757 words)

There is no doubt that the internet has made life a lot easier for family historians, both professional and amateur. Many indexes and some documents are now available to view online that previously could only be seen by travelling to an archives office. However, online research is not without its ... Read more (668 words)

Genealogy is a fascinating and addictive hobby. In fact, many people have told me that they never used to be interested in it, but once they started looking at their ancestry they were hooked! Tracing ancestors has become extremely popular in the last few years, particularly here in the UK ... Read more (803 words)

When you are tracing ancestors, one of the most common problems you will come across is the variation in surname spellings.Here are some of the reasons why this happens.1. Until the 19th century there were no standardized spellings for surnames. Around 90% of the population could not read or write, ... Read more (626 words)