Features

Guides, tutorials, interviews, research and opinion pieces on family and social history

An engraving depicting the exterior of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. Dated 19th century.

Discover your past

How to find hospital and asylum records

A tithe proctor visits a family in Ireland to fill in a tithe applotment book, 1830s

Overseas ancestry

Tithe applotment books: Our guide to finding your Irish ancestors’ land

DNA family history

Getting started

The best websites for DNA family history research

Cate Blanchett Cornish surnames

Cornish surnames: How to tell if you have Cornish ancestry

RootsMagic 8 family history software

What is the best UK family history software?

Illegitimate child

Discover your past

How to find the father of an illegitimate child

A lesson on 'Hitlerism and democracy' at Cheadle High School, 1939. Genealogy courses.

The best genealogy courses available now

Women having their dinner at a workhouse in St Pancras, London, c. 1900. Workhouse records

Discover your past

Where can I find workhouse records?

How to start a family tree

Getting started

How to start a family tree

A military hospital, 1914

The best websites for finding military hospital staff

Ag labs pitch hay into a cart on a farm near Whitby, c. 1880

How to research ag labs

British prisoners of war at Dunkirk.

How to find prisoner of war records

A governess and her charges

Governesses: Who were they, and what were their lives like?

Engraving depicting Prince Rupert of the Rhine during the Storming of Bristol in the English Civil War, under the reign of Charles I, England, July 26th 1643. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Discover your past

How to research English Civil War soldiers

An early photograph of a baptism ceremony, c. 1860 baptism records

How to find baptism records