Family Tree UK

Learn how to trace your family tree! Every issue is packed with: family history research advice hands-on learning experiences to help you become an ancestor super-sleuth & step-by-step guides to show you the path to tracing the past. From vintage documents to the latest in DNA, we’re here to help you discover more! Get the latest in genealogy news, software, books, archives and expert answers. Plus enjoy those reader stories that remind what it means to trace your family story. Research & remember your roots with Family Tree!

What’s your family history Christmas wish?

MORE FROM US…

UNCOVERING AUSTRALIA’S PAST TRACES

New British Library catalogue • A ransomware attack two years ago led to ongoing disruption and lack of access to the online services of the British Library website. 8 December saw a new catalogue launched

Ness of Brodgar Time Team dig confirmed for Summer 2026

Storied cards • 12 simple questions to get friends and family reminiscing

Scottish Indexes: free online conference

Vilnius University creates first open-access AI Yiddish transcription tool

Essex Regiment Museum closing January 2026

DNA Club news • DNA Club news reporter Karen Evans shares news from the genealogy scene

FAMILY TREE ACADEMY Festive Quiz 2025 • Welcome to the 2025 Family Tree Academy End of Year Quiz. This year Family Tree Academy tutor David Annal sets before us a festive selection box of brain teasers on a wide variety of genealogy-related topics. We hope you have fun with them. You will find the answers on page 13

Want to go beyond just names, places and dates and really discover your family story?

‘Diana otherwise Jessie’ Tracing one of Britain’s ‘Brown Babies’ • Genealogist Laura House tells us about the tragic life of a cousin born to a white British woman and a Black American GI during WWII, and how DNA testing enabled her to fill in some vital gaps in her life story

Old, Out of the Ordinary Occupations • Many of us will recall ordinary occupations from times’ past that are no longer found in the workplace. Wayne Shepheard reflects on a selection of these former roles – jobs that would have seemed unexceptional to our ancestors, but which may leave us puzzled or curious to find out more today…

THE EDWARDSON HISTORY SOCIETY DISCOVERING THE PAST OF A RARE SURNAME • What do you do when your surname is at once entirely ordinary – and vanishingly rare? And what if no one else seems to be researching it? That was the position Mike Edwardson found himself in for several years…

GETTING STARTED WITH MEDALS • Here we explore the military medals (and badges and stars) that your ancestor may have been eligible for over the past decades and centuries, and the clues they provide as to their service.

ABRAHAM COCKMAN breaking down a brick wall • Keen family historian Virginia Silvester explores the life of her great-great-grandfather, Abraham Cockman, and tells us how a chance discovery online led her to research his half-great-aunt

The family tree AI BOOTCAMP • Transform your research into a treasured family story

TRACING SHADOWS IN THE Beck-Bailey mystery • Genealogist Julie Johnson tells us the tragic story of a young George Beck, condemned to see out his short life in a lunatic asylum, and explores the mystery of his father’s change of the family’s surname

DNA GLOSSARY helpful terms and phrases for DNA testing • This month, our DNA expert Karen Evans gives us a comprehensive glossary of DNA-related terms and definitions that will help us to interpret our results if we decide to do a DNA test as part of our research

MEDIEVAL WILLS & FEET OF FINES MEDIEVAL RECORDS FOR THE GENEALOGIST & LOCAL HISTORIAN 1066-1485 • Discover the record collections and research...