1. Home
  2. Discover your past

Discover your past

Where to begin your search for your family history, whether you're a beginner or in need of some specialist ancestry advice

Getting started

Everything you need to know about how to begin
How to start a family tree
Getting started

How to start a family tree

Start Your Tree
Features

How to Start Your Family Tree: Week 1

How to find birth records
Getting started

How to find birth, marriage and death records

Read more

Popular tutorials

Learn from our most visited guides
Gypsy children, circa 1930
Discover your past

Gypsy past: Am I descended from Gypsies?

British actor Alec Guinness (1914 - 2000) with his fiance Merula Salaman 19th May 1938. They met while both working for John Gielgud's stage company at the Queen's Theatre in London. 1939 Register
Discover your past

What is the 1939 Register?

Imperial toast between Wilhelm and Franz Joseph royal ancestry
Getting started

Royal ancestry: How to know if you have royal ancestry

Overseas ancestry

Take your research abroad and find family across the globe
If your family came from the Caribbean, you could also have British royal ancestry
Getting started

The best websites for tracing Caribbean ancestors

German street musicians 1879
Overseas ancestry

How to tell if you have German ancestry

Huguenots Land At Dover
Overseas ancestry

Who were the Huguenots?

Read more overseas

House history

Discover more about the history of your house or street
How old is my house a London terrace
Features

How old is my house and who lived there?

Edwardian cyclists examining old maps in a country lane
Discover your past

Where to find old maps of your area online

Know Your Place
Features

10 best free historic map sites

Advertisement

Latest tutorials

British Home Children from the Dr Barnardo's Homes leave for a new life in Canada on the RMS Antonia, UK, April 1923
Features

Who were the British Home Children?

Wills research at the Probate Registry, Somerset House, London, c.1901
Discover your past

Where are wills kept?

East End children, London, c1900.
DNA

How a DNA test revealed my Jewish ancestry

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

The best genealogy courses available now