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Welcome to Discover Your Ancestors Periodical. As ever we’ve packed loads of insight and information into a small space, giving you a rich mixture of social history background and family history advice. This issue has a particularly nautical theme: as well as news of a very useful online data collection for tracking seafaring ancestors in England and Wales through the 19th and early 20th centuries, we have an account of the infamous press gangs who roamed dockside streets and pubs looking for fresh muscle to man the Navy’s ships, and a fascinating account of a lost way of life in the old fishing villages now absorbed into the mass of London. It’s not all salt and sea air, though: we have some great guidance on using school registers for your research, a look at how department stores transformed shopping for our forebears, and more besides. If you’re in the UK this September, do try to get to the National Family History Fair on Saturday 7th, in Newcastle upon Tyne. It’s one of the key events of the UK genealogy calendar and will be packed with stalls and genealogy advice. See www.nationalfamilyhistoryfair.comfor more information. As ever, do let me know – [email protected] – what sort of subjects you’d like to see us cover in future issues. Andrew Chapman, Editor.