Getting started

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Don't miss our guide to choosing the best family history website, and the pros and cons of Ancestry, Findmypast, TheGenealogist and MyHeritage

Jonathan Scott shares his top online resources for tracing your Caribbean ancestry

We explain how to easily find birth, marriage and death records in the UK for family history research

Genealogist Paul Blake explains why English and Welsh baptism records are important in family history research, and where you can find them online

These free genealogy websites will help you start your British family history research without costing a penny

Whether you’re trying to access your own adoption records or tracing an adoption in your family history, Gill Rossini explains the next steps

How to find and order marriage certificates for your British and UK ancestors and what the records will tell you

Have you created an online family tree? Find out how you can export it in the GEDCOM file format, created by the LDS Church

Do you have an illegitimate child in your family tree? Find out how you can use family history techniques to find their father

What is the 1939 Register, when was it taken and where can you access the records? We explain how to use this useful census substitute from the start of the Second World War

Discover if you have Irish ancestry with the help of our list of the best Irish ancestry websites

You don't have to be an aristocrat to have royal ancestry. We explain how to use simple family history methods to check for blue blood

Who Do You Think You Are? family history expert Laura Berry shares her tips on how to start a family tree

UK census records are a crucial family history resource, but when was the census taken and where can you find census records including free census websites?

From death certificates to wills, there are many different family history resources you can use to find your ancestors' death records

Find out what a second cousin is, what people mean by 'removed' and how to work out cousin relationships with our chart

Finding your ancestors' marriages is crucial to family history research. We explain when marriage registers were introduced, where you can find different types of marriage register and what they will tell you

Discover how to trace your ancestor's service record from the First World War on these websites

Jonathan Scott wades through the jargon to bring together the best sites for understanding your family history using DNA testing

Inspired by BBC Two's A House Through Time? Jonathan Scott shows you how to trace the history of your house

Ever wondered where your surname comes from? Discover the origins of some common British surnames - and the best websites for researching surnames