Canadian-born comedian, Katherine Ryan, turns to family research in search of an ancestral connection to the country she now calls home – England. Ancestry ProGenealogist, Joe Buggy explores her journey and the resources she used along the way. On this week’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, Canadian comedian Catherine Ryan was determined Read More
It’s the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. Known to many as simply ‘Wimbledon’, The Championships is attended not only by the best tennis players in the world, but some of society’s most famous icons. Founded in 1877, Wimbledon takes place over two weeks in June and July every year and is Read More
The Western Front Association’s Pension Record Archive includes approximately 1.5 million ledgers of claims made to the UK Government’s Ministry of Pensions. These ledgers provide a wealth of information that is unlikely to be available from other sources. The largest section within the ledgers is approximately 1.2 million pages of records for Soldiers, Royal Naval Read More
Newspaper articles and excerpts can be a useful tool for not only researching your ancestors, but understanding more about the social, cultural and political attitudes of the time. While notices of births, marriages and deaths are useful in tracking specific ancestors, newspapers can also help contextualise your research and add colour to your family tree. Read More
As an ex-pat living in London, one thing I never tire of appreciating is London’s history. Coming from a young country in comparison to England, my head boggles with just how old this city is; what it’s been through, what it’s seen, how it’s changed and sometimes, how it hasn’t. The house I grew up Read More
This blogpost about the Medway Poor Law Union Records was written by archivist, Alison Cable. Alison is the archivist and manager of Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre and is responsible for taking care of all the archive collections deposited at Strood. These include the records of Medway Council, parish collections, private collections, public records such as Read More
The Battle of the Somme began on 1 July, 1916 – the deadliest day in the history of the British Army. Around 20,000 British Empire soldiers lost their lives that day and it was just the beginning of a battle that would be become forever associated with the horrors of the First World War. Based Read More
July 1st marks the 100th centenary of the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest battles in British military history and a defining moment in the First World War. On the first day alone, 19,240 British soldiers were killed and 38,230 reported injured or missing. 140 days later when the battle finally concluded on Read More
What tip would you share with a researcher who’s just started their family history journey? We posed this question to our UK Twitter community recently and were overwhelmed with helpful responses – everything from who and how to research, to buying your self nice stationery for all those notes you’ll be taking. Here are 7 Read More
Welcome to our weekly update on the new Ancestry website. Last week we posted an article that highlighted some of your favorite features that will be coming into the new Ancestry in the coming weeks. These include Member Connect and Military Pages. We are also close to having thumbnail images available in the timeline on the FACTS Read More