Family Tree

My family Tree and
Genealogy Resources.

One of my favourite hobbies, and the gift that keeps on giving, is reseaching family history.

I first became interested when I was in my early 20's my father shared with me a computer print out given to him by a relative which showed part of his family tree.

After my father passed away I found this again and decided to explore more as there were a lot of gaps and unknown information.

After seeing the TV Series "Who Do You Think You Are?" I became absorbed in solving the mysteries of both sides of my family. Due to the power of DNA I've solved some of the biggest mysteries to a degree, but some strong family "stories" have been harder to prove.

Here's some of my favourite resources:-

Family History and Genealogy Resources

Ancestry UK

*** Update January 7th 2025 - Exciting News! If you are a UK Ancestry subscriber, the 1921 Census is now abailable to view on Ancestry ***

In the UK, Ancestry has one of the strongest toolsets for family tree research. There's a massive data set including census images and information for all UK census years up to 1911, The 1939 Register as also included which gives a more upto date insight. Most UK parish records are fully documents, so Birth, Marriage, Death, Christing and Burial Records for many areas go back many generations.

There are also numerous collections of Military, Immigration, Emmigation, School, Courts, Financial, and linked faily trees form other members.

Ancestry DNA is also the biggest testing company in the UK. It gives you an excellent view of you likely Geographic origins, and shows for most people thousands and DNA matches to people who have been tested, from close relatives through to very distant.

Ancestry uses autosomal DNA testing which is particularly accurate for finding both close and distant relatives on your maternal and paternal sides.

Living DNA

Living DNA is more focused on DNA than family tree research. What Living DNA does differently to some other DNA tests is that in addition to autosomal testing (which covers maternal and paternal DNA, it also tests Y Chromosome DNA. This DNA is exlusively passed from father to son and remains relatively unchanged over many generations.

Your Y DNA results will give you a Haplogroup number. From this Haplogroup number it can be determised the route your ancient ancesters took to get to where the majority if that haplogroup lives now, and also a likehood of when the migration took place

Living DNA also tests your Mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial or MT DNA is found in the mitochondria cells.

Your Mitochondrial DNA is passed directly to you by your mother, and to her by her mother and so on without undergoing any changes (recombination). This means your MT DNA information is identical to your mother, because of this Living DNA can tell you about your ancestral information from your mother.

Gedmatch

GEDmatch is a free online website that allows users to upload their DNA test results from companies like AncestryDNA, 23andMe, or Family Tree DNA to identify relatives and learn about their genetic heritage.

GEDmatch provides a list of matches for the user's DNA, ethnicity reports based on data from multiple academic sources, estimates the number of generations to the user's most recent common ancestor, compares a user's DNA to another user's DNA, and users can join groups of people who are related to each other and want to learn more about their family history.

1921 Census - Find My Past

The 100 year rule in the UK states that census records are kept confidential for 100 years before they are made available to the public. This means the most recent UK Census available is the 1921 Census.

The National Archives granted exclusive rights to the 1921 Census. The most extensive British census open to the public, this detailed snapshot of 38 million lives is only available online at Findmypast.

The 1921 Census provides greater detail than any of the previous censuses, asking additional questions about marital status, employment and education.

Birth Marriage and Death Certificates

Birth, marriage and death often give up a whole host of unexpected information. Whilst many websites such as Ancestry allow you to order these, they charge a premium price, when exactly the same can be ordered directly from the Government Records Office.

Providing you have the GRO index number, the cost is £12.50 and you should be able to download a PDF copy in 5 - 10 working days.

Wills and Probate

If your ancester left a will, the can sometimes reveal fascinating clues and insite into the complete picture of their lives.

Copies of wills are really easy aand cheap to order and in my opinion the best value of any paid family hisory research you could choose to undertake.

The total fee for the search and download is £1.50 for each new will.

London Lives

London Lives offers fully digitised, searchable access to a vast collection of primary sources on eighteenth-century London, with a strong focus on everyday people.

It brings together more than 240,000 manuscript and printed pages from eight London archives, alongside fifteen additional datasets from other projects.

In total, the resource contains over 3.35 million recorded name instances and includes tools that let users link records belonging to the same individual.

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