Featured Articles

Read about our newest Record Set releases and how they could help further your research, get inspired by our historical articles which show how famous ancestors such as Florence Nightingale, the Brontë sisters or Charles Darwin can be traced online, or enjoy fascinating discoveries about well-known celebrities in our Who Do You Think You Are section.

2009 Articles

Josiah Wedgwood

Josiah Wedgwood was born on the 12th July, 1730 in Burslem Staffordshire into a family of potters. He was the youngest of 12 children to Mary Wedgwood and her husband Thomas and become the leader in ceramic manufacturers. As a child he suffered from small pox which resulted in a weakened knee which meant he was unable to work the foot pedal of the potter's wheel. This led him to concentrate more on the design of the pottery rather than the manufacturing.

Birth, Marriage and Death records onboard ships

They give detailed information which has been compiled from ships' official logs of births, deaths and marriages of passengers at sea by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen (RGSS) and its predecessor. The records range from 1854 to 1908 and include over 150,000 individuals. Included are 288 death records for the 'Royal Charter', which was traveling back from Australia in October 1859, when it became caught in a storm just miles from home off the coast of Anglesey. The ship was carrying a great number of prospectors who had gone to Australia to find their fortune, so when the ship sank on October 26th it took over 67,000 ounces of gold with it. Many inhabitants of nearby coast lines became rich overnight as the gold began to wash up on the shores.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

We all owe a debt of gratitude to those who died fighting for our country, and November 11th is the time when we remember those who died in the Great War of 1914 to 1918, the 'War to end all wars'. It was the largest conflict in history and involved 70 million people from different countries, backgrounds, religions and race. Just about every family was affected by this war, including the famous Charles Darwin, whose grandson Erasmus Darwin was killed in the second battle of Ypres. Searching in the Roll of Honour on TheGenealogist.co.uk gives three results for Erasmus.

What A Bonney Idea

For several months I have been tracing the many branches of my wife's family in Australia. During the mid to late 19th century there were many ways for people to gain a passage on ships arriving at the Australian Colonies. One family I was having a lot of problems with was Benjamin Bonney and his very large family from Sussex in England. After spending many hours searching through the various shipping records I was almost ready to give up. Then I saw the Family Forename Search on The Genealogist.

The Bronte Family

Although the legacy of the Brontë family now lives on into its third century, the life of the sisters themselves was in fact very short-lived and all died before reaching the age of 30. Despite their short lives, it's possible to trace this family in early records which are available online.

Florence Nightingale

Florence was raised in a life of luxury and comfort, but despite this felt suffocated by the society that surrounded her. She was often depressed and lonely, which perhaps was the root of her need to care for the sick and wounded.

Discovering Famous Quaker Ancestors

Sandra Adams has been researching her family history since the age of 10 and discovered on the IGI that her family were originally Quakers in the Bristol area. Her first real break-through with her Quaker past came when The National Archives, in collaboration with heGenealogist.co.uk, released the original Quaker records as part of the non-conformist record set.

Jon the Con

The bulky envelope sits heavily in my hands. It just arrived in today's mail from my Great Aunt Marion , my mother's cousin. I had written to her, telling her of my wish to write our family memoirs. I rip open the packet. Inside are birth, marriage and death certificates - dozens of them- the numbers of people here surprise me. Are all these my ancestors?

Who Do You Think You Are?

Every year the popular BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? brings us a host of new and exciting stories. We have taken a look at each celebrity as they journey into their family history, and you can read about their discoveries in our articles.