Family Tree UK

Learn how to trace your family tree! Every issue is packed with: family history research advice hands-on learning experiences to help you become an ancestor super-sleuth & step-by-step guides to show you the path to tracing the past. From vintage documents to the latest in DNA, we’re here to help you discover more! Get the latest in genealogy news, software, books, archives and expert answers. Plus enjoy those reader stories that remind what it means to trace your family story. Research & remember your roots with Family Tree!

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MORE FROM US…

DNA testing company 23andMe files for bankruptcy • On 23 March 2025, DNA testing company ​23andMe has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in a bid to sell the company. Matt Hill reports

Who Do You Think You Are? celebrities revealed for 2025 • The celebrities for this year’s series of the popular genealogy TV show Who Do You Think You Are? have been revealed and include actor Andrew Garfield, comedian Diane Morgan, and singer Will Young. Matt Hill reports

New family history courses & guides • Publishers of Family Tree are proud to announce 2 new courses and 2 new publications this spring

DNA Club news • DNA Club news reporter Karen Evans shares news from the genealogy scene

New WW1 military family history research service • With the majority of WW1 soldiers’ records destroyed, many family historians find this an insurmountable research obstacle. Military family historian Graham Caldwell has launched a new research service to circumvent this problem. Helen Tovey reports

Finding our ancestors’ DEATH RECORDS • This month, Family Tree Academy tutor David Annal guides us through the range of sources that may record an ancestor’s death, and finds that for the family historian, death can be the beginning of a new research journey

VICTORY IN EUROPE (VE) BUT, NOT YET VICTORY OVER JAPAN (VJ) • As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, 8 May 2025, military family historian and author Graham Bandy takes us back to this momentous chapter of Second World War history

FOUND & Lost • Still trying to piece together the mysterious Tonges, her mum’s dad’s side of the family, Gill Shaw makes discoveries that hint at more family tragedy

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mtDNA ‘ugly duckling’ of DNA testing • mtDNA holds genetic clues about our direct maternal line back tens of thousands of years. Yet when it comes to the closer details that we require for a useful genealogical timeframe, it doesn’t have the clear benefits that autosomal and Y DNA testing can offer. What can we learn with an mtDNA test? John Cleary explains.

TRACING SCHOOLCHILDREN what the records can reveal • Genealogist Fiona Gray-Davies introduces us to the variety of old school records available, and demonstrates the wealth of detail they can give us about not just the children but our teacher ancestors, too, in the late 1800s and early 1900s

Unhappy beginnings ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN IN THE PARISH RECORDS • Researcher Wayne Shepheard looks at the tragic – and occasionally redemptive – stories of illegitimate and foundling children to be found in the parish registers

VE DAY 80 SPECIAL: Planning a WW2 battlefield research trip • Historian and genealogist Dr Dean Kirby shows how you can use military records to plan a research trip to Europe’s Second World War battlefields

DNA DO YOU REALLY NEED TO TEST A SIBLING? • Karen Evans considers herself very lucky when it comes to family DNA testing. Although all her grandparents were deceased before direct-to-consumer testing became a thing, both her parents were happy to join in with her DNA discoveries and so were all their siblings. And this creates an interesting question – do we really need to...