Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2025 i Family Tree UK

To find full details of the new collections added to RootsIreland.ie, visit www.rootsireland.ie/2025/09/new-records-added/. They include fascinating specialist details such as: records of apprentices to the trade of apothecary and licensed apothecaries; Dublin electors 1865; ‘Forfeiting Proprietors, Cork, Dublin, Kerry, Wexford’ (ie mostly Irish Catholics whose land was confiscated by Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s); Freeholder Index, Fermanagh (covering those eligble to vote 1747-1768); Students, Cork(1849-1860); Outlawries for treason, Cork, Dublin, Wexford (for those outlawed 1641-1647 and 1691-1698); and muster rolls, Fermanagh (1629-1633).…

Rachel Hillman, Deputy Head of Education and Outreach at The National Archives said: ‘We’re thrilled to have our education and informal learning programmes recognised in this way. The Sandford Award is a prestigious accreditation and reflects the high standard of our education provision at The National Archives.’ TNA’s team, all trained teachers, bring alive history using maps, drawings, wills, censuses, illustrations and other records from around 26 million documents held at The National Archives in Kew. Sessions based on the National Curriculum and history exam specifications allow primary, secondary school, GCSE and A-level students to see and handle original documents from the past. An assessor for the Heritage Education Trust, which awards the prize, said: “The two most important resources of the education service are firstly the astonishing range of…

Mike Gould has been awarded Highly Commended in the Knowledge and Information Management category of the 2025 Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) awards for his book, A Family History Manual. The judging panel deemed it: ‘very readable and approachable, comprehensive with excellent bibliographies … An excellent example of sharing knowledge.” Congratulations to Family Tree reader Mike Gould. Members of Family Tree Plus can view Mike’s presentations on family history brickwalls as part of their member video library. https://www.family-tree.co.uk/membership A Family History Manual is available from Amazon priced £35.…

The leap from “Can AI help my genealogy?” to “How can I use AI efficiently every day?” is where many researchers stumble. They either remain overly cautious, using AI sporadically, or become overly dependent, compromising their research standards. This article shows you the middle path: Strategic acceleration that amplifies your expertise without replacing it. Family history research often feels like piecing together a puzzle with half the pieces missing. Hours vanish into searches, transcriptions, and endless checking, leaving little time for the most rewarding part: crafting stories that breathe life into your ancestors. What if you could reclaim that time? Artificial intelligence (AI) offers genealogists a way to do just that – not as a replacement for careful research, but as a trusted accelerator. Used wisely, AI tools help us…

This is one in a series of articles; the intention is to provide an overview of useful family and local history records in existence, covering the period 1066-1485. Each article can be enjoyed as a standalone read, but the maximum benefit will be enjoyed by reading the entire series. The series began in the July issue of Family Tree. This issue we will continue with Inquisitions Post Mortem (IPM). This series of articles includes leads and resources for all countries within the British Isles. This issue, however, the article covers IPM records for England, particularly focussing, by way of example, on the case study parish of Stannington, Northumberland, northeast England. What of IPM records for Scotland, Wales and Ireland? Unfortunately, there are no IPMs or similar records for Scotland in…

Getting started with British & Commonwealth uniforms The uniforms of the British Armed Forces and those of the Empire, Commonwealth and dominions across the sea all looked alike with subtle differences. This same rule can be applied to the other branches of the British Armed Forces, but in this article we will concentrate on the Army. Where Britain led, the Empire followed in style with uniforms and distinctions – to the extent of even having pipe bands! Commonwealth countries, and indeed countries with whom we were once allied, all have Scottish-style pipe bands, from Jordan to Nigeria, via Egypt and Pakistan and over to Canada; even within the former colonies in the Americas you can find pipe bands. And of course, Irish regiments have their own long history of pipe…

One small link can make the chain stronger A while back I was researching my great-grandfather, William Pryde Thomson. I am never one to be satisfied with the bare bones of birth, marriage, death and census data; I have to make sense of the lives of my ancestors. Towards that end I look at their occupations and the social history of the age they lived in and how that may have affected them. In 1871, at the age of 11, William was recorded as a coal miner then in 1880 his marriage certificate records him as a stonemason (journeyman). From a life underground to learning a trade was a step up, but by 1881 he was back to working as a colliery labourer. Why? I had two hypotheses. First was…

The Strathclyde Institute for Genealogical Studies (SIGS) will hold a hybrid international academic genealogy conference at the University of Strathclyde on 25 & 26 June 2026. SIGS welcomes proposals for presentations, workshops, panel discussions and posters. Please submit proposals by 8 December 2025. Decisions will be sent out by end of December 2025. To learn more, visit: https://www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/centreforlifelonglearning/genealogy/beyondfamilytreeconference2026/…

Over the past 18 months Crista Cowan has worked to develop the Family Chartmasters’ website to better meet the needs of family historians. Crista Cowan: ‘We’ve restructured the entire customer journey so people can define their goals, choose the right kind of chart, and work with our designers to create something both functional and beautiful to tell their family story.’…

If your ancestors lived in the UK in the 19th and 20th centuries, the chances are that one or more of them saw some sort of military service. When we think of our ancestors serving in the British military we most often think about the Army or the Royal Navy (or, from 1918, the RAF) but there’s another important service to consider, one with its own history stretching right back to the reign of King Charles II. Marines tended to spend more time at home than their Royal Navy and Army colleagues and they’re more likely to have had wives and families On 28 October 1664, a special regiment known as ‘The Admiral’s Regiment’ was raised. Around 1,200 soldiers were recruited ‘to be distributed into His Majesty’s Fleet, prepared for…

We provide impartial, expert advice to help you sharpen your research skills, solve brick walls, and discover just how inspiring family history can be. We complement the record sites and tree-building tools – showing you how to get the most from them, so you can uncover the stories that truly matter. Subscribe to Family Tree and start making more discoveries Subscribe to Family Tree Plus Premium and we’ll send you the print magazine every month (and the annual Family History Handbook), plus you’ll enjoy all the benefits of Family Tree Plus. ✔ Live monthly webinars (worth £30/month) ✔ Over 100 hours of on-demand video ✔  Searchable archive of Family Tree magazine ✔  Every new issue added to the digital library ✔  Exclusive members offers and discounts ✔  Your members-only newsletter…

History is a multifaceted discipline drawn from long passed events that can still affect and define us in the present. Wherever we live there will be an established national history and story that has been decades, centuries, and even millennia in the making. This sense of a national history may set us apart from others on the world stage as a people, and accompanied by the flying of our flags, the speaking of our distinctive languages, and the support of our national teams, it may create a notional sense of identity to define who we are, how we came to be, and where we fit within the greater scale of things. National holidays and anniversary commemorations can be used to perpetuate this sense of national self, providing opportunities to share…

Perhaps, if you are over a certain age, you remember the Monty Python sketch that included the catchphrase ‘Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!’ The same could be said for your DNA results. Most people, including myself, are hoping for lots of lovely high matches which, when analysed, show links to all sides of your well-researched tree. But what if that’s not the case? What if your DNA test throws up something unexpected? What if you have an MPE? What is an MPE? There are several ways to describe an unexpected outcome in your match list. I’ve seen MPE (misattributed parental event) and NPE (not parent expected or non-paternity event) and even in these terms parental and paternal are interchangeable. Whichever acronym you prefer, they all basically mean the same thing…

Do these WWI medals belong to William Cross born Haydock 19 October 1871? Q Could one of your experts help find the identity of the recipient of three First World War medals and a cap badge which we have discovered in my loft! The medals are the British War Medal, Victory Medal and the 1914-15 Star. The name on all three medals is: W. Cross PTE RAMC 62426. We understand that RAMC stands for the Royal Army Medical Corps and the medals were awarded for service in WWI. The cap badge inscription is ‘Loyal North Lancashire’ (Figure 1). In our family tree we have a Cross family who lived in Haydock, Ashton-in Makerfield, Lancashire. It includes a William Cross born 19 October 1871. I would be grateful for any help…

Pals – groups of brothers, friends, and workmates who enlisted, fought, and often fell together in the First World War – answered Kitchener’s call to serve. Lord Kitchener was the Secretary of State for War when he masterminded published on the cover the massive recruitment on 5 September 1914 drive to encourage ‘pals’ to enlist together, and his New Army of volunteer battalions became popularly known as the Pals battalions. Despite their sacrifice, there is no single roll that holds every name of the Pals. This is something that Findmypast now wish to redress, calling on the genealogy community to help change that. Jen Baldwin, Research Specialist at Findmypast said: “We believe that uncovering and understanding the stories of all those who served is a powerful act of Remembrance… We’re…

This long-running project involved both library staff and volunteers, who sorted, catalogued and rehoused more than 8,000 pieces of printed ephemera, providing library users with greater access to this area of the collection. The ephemera collection illustrates the services and advertisements of different shipping companies, and would be of interest to those research shipping company histories. https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/cairdlibrary…

Exploring the tangled roots of a family tree is rarely straightforward. What begins as a search for dates and names often unravels into something far more. A bit like rummaging through an old attic – you never quite know what you’re going to find. Alongside the profound discoveries that make you pause and the touching stories that bring a tear to your eye, there are always wonderfully funny moments that make the whole journey worthwhile. From unexpected scandals to the occasional ‘Surely not!’ revelation, tracing your family history guarantees a rollercoaster of surprises that proves truth really can be stranger than fiction – as this month’s edition will prove. This edition we are focussing on that ever-cheerful subject, death. Family historians, it seems, remain fascinated by the unusual circumstances surrounding…

Two baby boys born out of wedlock four months apart. One grew up to be Thomas Tonge, my 2x great-grandfather. The other, William Smith, sadly didn’t fare so well. Last month, when I came across the baptism of William ‘son of Cozbi Smith’, it opened up a proper can of worms and seemed to point to the intriguing possibility that William Smith and Thomas Tonge shared the same father – William Grindle the stonemason. But now, at the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk site (lan-opc.org.uk), I’m looking at a burial transcription. Four-year-old William Smith, described as the son of ‘Cozbi? Smith’, was buried at Peel Chapel, Little Hulton, on 30 June 1839. Only something here doesn’t quite add up because by 1839, Cozbi Smith isn’t Cozbi Smith anymore. She’s Cozbi Grindle…

Having been a Family Tree Maker power user for several years, I haven’t really looked at other programs. But when I was asked to review Reunion and Reunion Touch for MAC and iOS, I definitely couldn’t resist the challenge. I love my Mac and love my iPad. The question to me was – could Reunion give me all the things I wanted? Purchasing Reunion 14 You pay for Reunion 14 once. You can purchase it, as a download, through the Leisterpro website or through dealers in several countries, for instance: • https://www.leisterpro.com/ (US$99; US$49 to upgrade from a previous version) • https://www.leisterpro.com/doc/buy.php (UK prices are £84.50; £47.50 to upgrade) Trial version Reunion has a demo mode if you are interested in trying before buying: https://www.leisterpro.com/doc/v14/download.php Reunion Touch – iOS App You…

Sitting on the sofa next to my dad as he tapped away on Ancestry, I was instantly drawn to the mass of names, dates and places. The colourful graphics caught my eye and I couldn’t possibly resist. I asked my parents whether I could have a tree of my own … and so my adventure began and my tree slowly grew. It was hard to fit research in around school, but I kept at it and really enjoyed it. I now have 71 people in my tree, including direct ancestors and some of their siblings. Some of the main places in my tree are Lancashire, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bombay, India. What I love researching I love researching criminal ancestors and have one or two in my family tree, so I…

Wendy Sutherland says: I share some photographs: the first is in a leather box, and I am almost sure it shows the Reverend Archibald Gardner and Mary Hall, as it came with a few other Gardner family photos that were, fortunately, labelled. Archibald was ordained at New Deer, Aberdeen and married Mary in 1856 in Abbey Paisley, Renfrewshire. Photographs 2 and 3 are definitely of them in later life. I was wondering if a minister of the Free Church would wear sort this neck attire and whether you think they are the same couple. The next two photographs are of Elizabeth Taylor (née Webster), 1826–1861. She married John George Taylor in 1848 at Leeds Parish Church, and died in childbirth. I was hoping you could tell me how I should…

There have been times when I’ve been shocked by a nostalgic trip, like when I revisited my old school playground, to feel like Alice in Wonderland, as the giant child after eating the cake. Or returning to our old street, to see our house, now student flats with five overflowing wheelie bins outside. Perhaps some things do need leaving in the glorious moving picture palace of memory, to be retrieved as they were for future family historians. My instinct does lean towards revisiting old haunts, even though some now feel sad and inglorious, because even those occasions can trigger things forgotten so strongly, it feels like you’ve momentarily fallen through a wrinkle in time. And, believe me, one day you’ll be old enough for it to become Family History and…