Who Do You Think You Are?

Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine not only explores the stories behind the popular BBC genealogy TV series, but also helps you uncover your own roots. Each issue is packed with practical advice to help you track down family history archives and get the most out of online resources, alongside features on what life was like in the past and the historic events that affected our ancestors.

Welcome

CONTRIBUTORS

SARAH'S TOP TIP • Think about place as well as people when trying to hunt down records

Gemini tried to trick me!

Letters

Who Do You Think You Are?

What's On

Countdown begins to 1926 Irish census release

NEWS IN BRIEF

Irish GRO provides update on missing death records

Ancestry adds East Riding records

Refugee architects database now live

TNA to analyse George IV's wallpaper

Scots emigrants website goes online

MEDIEVAL CHILD MARRIAGE • Alan Crosby on a peculiar medieval custom that seems deeply unsavoury to us today

A FOOTBALLER WENT TO WAR • As more Second World War army records go online, Phil Tomaselli reveals how much you can learn about the service of a single soldier

ATTESTATION • This form was completed when a soldier was recruited

RECORD OF SERVICE • This document provides high-level information about a military career

SERVICE AND CASUALTY CARD • This is the key record for detailed information about your British Army relation

TRACER CARD • Here you learn more about a soldier's movements and promotions

RESOURCES • Three essential websites

Words of love • A house clearance revealed a mysterious love letter dating from the First World War. Here Jo Thompson explains how researchers returned it to the family

A POST OFFICE UNDER PRESSURE • Jo explains how the Post Office helped to deliver two billion letters and more than 100 million parcels to members of the armed forces during the First World War

RESOURCES • Websites for WW1 research

‘MY TREE INCLUDES A VERY LUCKY MINER, CANADIAN SETTLERS AND GANGSTERS’ • Gareth Winrow expected to find generations of ‘ordinary’ relations from Bolton when he began researching his roots. He couldn't have been more wrong, he tells Claire Vaughan

Resources • These websites helped Gareth research his remarkable kin

Illegitimacy Records from the 19th Century • There's nothing more frustrating for family historians than a birth or baptism record that only names the mother. Here Julie Johnson suggests other sources you can explore to find an unnamed father

Edwin Chadwick 1800–1890 • Chadwick made it even harder for unmarried mothers to get support for their children

EXPERT PICKS • Julie recommends these three websites

Newspaper Article, 1879 • This example, published in the Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald on 18 November 1879, summarises an affiliation case at the petty sessions with detail not found in the surviving paperwork, and is online (britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

RESOURCES • Unmissable websites

Maps • Old maps are widely available online and can help locate an ancestor, says Jonathan Scott

Expert's Choice

Go Further • Nine more websites to help you find old maps

Irish Land Commission Records • A substantial body of Irish records remain in a closed archive. Nicola Morris explores related documents that are starting to appear online

Advance Record, 1914 • This record is available digitally in the collection ‘Ireland, Land Commission Advances, 1891–1920’ on Findmypast (bit.ly/fmp-ireland-comm-advances)

RESOURCES • Take your research further

Did John Clark, my great great uncle, really exist? • Our...