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

SARAH’S TOP TIP • Muster rolls can form a kind of early census for your male relations

CONTRIBUTORS

PASSION AND PATIENCE

Letters

Who Do You Think You Are

Over 200,000 people sign up for RootsTech Connect • Rosemary Collins reports on data releases and genealogy news

Find my past adds Belfast and Ulster directories

CAN YOU HELP?

NEWS IN BRIEF

ScotlandsPeople and GRO update online civil reg indexes

ON THIS DAY • 8 February 1886 Eviction hide-and-seek

Ancestry adds Wiltshire nonconformist records

June Perrin retires as CEO of Society of Genealogists

Findmypast introduces new-look family tree

Eleanor Wadsworth • The pioneering ‘Spitfire woman’, who served with the RAF in the Second World War, has died at the age of 103

BFI Player releases earliest moving images of Europe

What’s On

PICK OF THE MONTH • This year the largest family history conference in the world is going online – and it’s free!

BOOK AHEAD • The National Archives is celebrating Women’s History Month

OFF THE RECORD • Alan Crosby shares his views on family history

PLOTS, PIKES, PLAGUE AND PURITANS • Janet Few investigates the lives of our Stuart ancestors, and outlines the unmissable sources that can help your 17th-century genealogical research

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TIMELINE • The events that shaped British history in the 17th century, and changed our ancestors’ lives forever

REV NATHANIEL EATON 1609–1674 • How Janet researched the life of a clergyman who features in her second historical novel

KEY SOURCES • Janet outlines the vital records that might help you locate your 17th-century kin

RESOURCES • Take your research further

ONE-NAME STUDIES • Debbie Kennett explains the many benefits of researching a single surname in depth

THE SWALWELL ONE-NAME STUDY • One family historian has made the most of the opportunities that the guild presents

THE GENEALOGIST’S SURNAME DISTRIBUTION MAPS • Search the website’s surname maps for England and Wales for free, and one for the USA. Maps of births and deaths are available to subscribers

THE RUBY ONE-NAME STUDY • This successful project proves just how much researchers can accomplish when they work together

KEY WEBSITES • These unmissable online resources can help you learn more about your surname’s distribution in the British Isles and beyond

RESOURCES • Take your research further

‘MY FAMILY HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN SEVERAL SEA DISASTERS’ • For good and ill, the lives of the close-knit communities of the Outer Hebrides are inevitably entwined with the sea, as family historian William Cumming explains to Claire Vaughan

RESOURCES • These organisations were very helpful for William’s research

THE BIG PICTURE • Celebrating our ancestors caught on camera

Q & A Our team of experts offers tips and inspiration • Our team of experts offers tips and inspiration

Is this couple celebrating 50 years of marriage?

Can you find out if my great great grandfather abandoned his wife and children in Scotland?

MILITARY PICTURE ANALYSIS

MY FAMILY ALBUM • Send us your images for a chance to win £75 to spend on photo restoration. Here Penney Thompson from Wantage in Oxfordshire introduces some of her...