Features

A party of child migrants about to leave for Canada, 1929

Overseas ancestry

What is child migration?

LivingDNA

LivingDNA review

Passengers play games on board ship, 1936 passenger lists

Discover your past

How to find passenger lists for ships

Nonconformist Quakers 1839

Discover your past

Nonconformist family history: The best websites

1603, An English blacksmith using an anvil in a forge. The surname Smith comes from the occupation of blacksmith

Getting started

Where does my surname come from?

Prime minister Winston Churchill inspecting Home Guard volunteers

What was the Home Guard?

The London Docklands c.1910

The London Docklands: When were they founded, what was life like, and why did they decline?

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

Discover your past

Where can I find workhouse 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

A head of household in Scotland filling in the schedule for the 1861 census

Getting started

What UK census records are available?

Illegitimate child

Discover your past

How to find the father of an illegitimate child

An example of a Griffith's Valuation record

Discover your past

Griffith’s Valuation: What is it, and where can you find the records?

Ruins of Mirtle Bank Hotel after the earthquake Jamaican ancestry

Overseas ancestry

Jamaican ancestry: How to find Jamaican family history records

Patients at Bethlem lunatic asylum, c.1860

Discover your past

What is a lunatic asylum?

Cate Blanchett Cornish surnames

Cornish surnames: How to tell if you have Cornish ancestry