The best family tree gifts

If you are looking for a family tree gift for your favourite genealogist, or you are a family historian who wants to share some of the joy of their research with others, then there are some great options for every budget. Whether you are looking for a Christmas gift, a birthday present or you just want to say 'thank you', here are our favourite suggestions that will put a smile on any family historian's face.

DNA test kit (from £79)

If they haven’t taken a DNA test yet, then this might be the best family tree gift for the genealogist in your family. It will allow them to understand more about their ancestry and potentially match with distant relatives.

It's important to know why you are buying a DNA test for someone. Are they looking to use the information to help grow their family tree? Are they just interested in knowing their DNA ethnicity? Or are they likely to want to uncover information about family traits or health issues? If you are looking for a test that will connect with the most cousins, then Ancestry DNA has the biggest database as far as we know.

Subscription to a genealogy website (from £13.99 a month)

Most family historians only subscribe to one genealogy website, but by doing that they will be missing out on all sorts of discoveries.

If they already subscribe to Ancestry, then treat them to a Pro subscription to Findmypast (starting from £19.49 for one month). Findmypast also offers three and twelve month gift subscriptions. If they are with Findmypast, then give them the gift of Ancestry (£13.99 a month for all UK and Ireland records or £19.99 for worldwide). Other sites to try include TheGenealogist where you can buy gift subscription vouchers or MyHeritage which gives a year of data for £79. These offers are all auto-renewing so make sure you cancel after the number of months you wish to offer.

Family Tree software (from £29.95)

Not everyone wants to keep their family tree online. If you want a family tree gift that will keep a genealogist happy for hours, then why not give them some family tree software.

Even if they already have some, there have been some new upgrades recently, so see if they would like the latest version. As an example, RootsMagic 9 retails at £29.95 and Family Historian 7 (above) retails at £59.95.

Customised Family Tree (from £75)

One of the best family tree gifts you can give is a family tree! If you’ve got the budget, why not go high end and get a professional handwritten tree. We love this example above available on Etsy (from £300) but you may want to go for something more traditional from Oakleaf Calligraphy who drew the tree for Danny Dyer’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? (from £600 handwritten or from £200 printed). If handwritten is above your budget, you can try a printed one such as a Classic Family Tree on Etsy (from £75) or you can create your own with a range of templates on Canva (many of which are free) and then print them out or share them as digital files.

Create a family tree photo book (from £9.99)

Don't let treasured old photographs linger unlooked at in old family albums. Now is the time to digitise some of your favourites and share them in a family tree photo book. You can create a simple family tree photo book through suppliers such as Snapfish or Photobox, to illustrate a particular topic (e.g. 'family Christmases' or 'our family in the Second World War'), and give to family members as a gift.

If you want to go beyond just a simple photo album, there are ways to incorporate more family history detail in your photo book. If you have a family tree on Ancestry, you can create an Ancestry Family History Book with My Canvas (see image above). Prices start at $40 and the website pulls in information from your Ancestry tree to help you build your book using customisable templates.

Using professional family tree templates to create a family tree photo book will help make your end result look much more slick and will save you a considerable amount of time. Some companies offer templates that suit a family history topic. Mixbook has a Family History template that will make your pages look really professional and let you add family trees to your pages easily. We also like their Family Lineage template for a more modern look.

If you don't like the templates offered by photo book companies, you can buy ready made ones and use them within certain packages. We particularly like the templates provided by HonestOutLoud on Etsy for £26.99, and you can currently get 20% off all HonestOutLoud designs if you enter the discount code WDYTYA. You get a good number of page designs covering everything you might want to put in your family history photo book, from timelines and family trees to personal stories all with a coherent clean design. You need to make sure that you select the templates that work with the package you will be using to create your photo book e.g. Apple Pages or Canva. There are plenty of other templates available on Etsy, so you are sure to find one that suits you. We also liked the templates provided ModernAncestryCo.

Historic map jigsaw puzzles (from £25.99)

Family historians love puzzles and maps so why not combine the two for the perfect family tree gift. Try Happy Puzzle (from £25.99) or Butler and Hill (from £34.99). Centre the map on a town or village where your ancestors used to live and spend some time getting to know the area!

Who Do You think You Are? Magazine (from £15.75 for six issues)

If the family historian in your life isn’t already getting the UK’s most popular family history magazine, then you are on to a winner with this perfect family tree gift. Packed with top tips, fascinating social history and all the latest news about records going online, your loved one will be grateful to you every month as a new issue of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine drops through their letterbox. We also have plenty of digital options if they prefer to read it on their phone, tablet or PC.

And for those who already have a subscription, we have gorgeous certificate binders (£12) and if you're looking for a stocking filler, why not order our beautiful family tree wallchart (see below) for just £4 and give them something to fill in over Christmas!