Who Do You Think You Are?

Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine not only explores the stories behind the popular BBC genealogy TV series, but also helps you uncover your own roots. Each issue is packed with practical advice to help you track down family history archives and get the most out of online resources, alongside features on what life was like in the past and the historic events that affected our ancestors.

Welcome

SARAH'S TOP TIP • Find time to visit a FamilySearch centre or affiliate library this month

CONTRIBUTORS

Well, I Never Knew That

Letters

Who Do You Think You Are?

What's On • Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk to feature your event here for free

Ancestry adds Cheshire electoral registers • Rosemary Collins reports on the latest data releases and genealogy news

NEWS IN BRIEF

Database of British slave traders goes online

CAN YOU HELP?

Four million Berkshire family history records go online

Dorking's wartime refugee committee records go online

William Wallace letter removal causes controversy

HALLOWED BE THY SHAME • ‘Bawdy court’ records can turn up some fascinating titbits from bygone church life – not all of them ecclesiastical Alan Crosby

MORE THAN A FAMILY TREE • From billions of historical records and AI-powered transcriptions to interactive maps and hidden image collections – Lucy Reynoldson explores some of the free FamilySearch resources that could transform your genealogy journey

USING FULL-TEXT SEARCH • This new FamilySearch feature is most useful when you treat the computer-generated transcript as a way into the original record, not as the final answer

ACCESSING WILLS • FamilySearch enables you to view 1858-1925 wills for free – here's how to do it

CREATING A TREE YOU CONTROL • This is different from making the collaborative FamilySearch Family Tree private. User-controlled trees sit within Genealogies and can be managed separately

6 SPOTLIGHT RECORD COLLECTIONS • It's not just baptisms, marriages and burials on FamilySearch

FAMILYSEARCH LOCATIONS • How dedicated centres and affiliate libraries can help you access hidden files

Picture Perfect? • AI can restore damaged photographs, sharpen blurred faces and even add colour to black-andwhite images. But when does enhancement become too much? Richard Croasdale investigates

TWO TRUTHS • How AI can alter our perception of the past

KEEPING HONEST WITH AI • As family historians, we can take steps to enjoy the benefits of AI restoration without contaminating the true record with errors

‘MY RELATIVE WAS SHOT AT DAWN’ • As we remember the fallen this November, spare a thought for those who were airbrushed from history – soldiers such as Della Judd's great great uncle, Ted Roberts. She tells Claire Vaughan his heartbreaking story

Resources • Della mined these helpful websites – and you can, too

VAD nurses in the First World War • The service records of Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses provide tantalising details about their role and where they served. Michelle Higgs explains how to find them

Vera Brittain 1893-1970 • VAD nurse, writer, feminist and pacifist

FIND YOUR VAD ANCESTOR • Look for your relative in the British Red Cross volunteers database

VAD index card • One of many available on the ‘British Red Cross volunteers during WW1’ database (vad.redcross.org.uk/search)

RESOURCES • Take your research further

Medieval England • Jonathan Scott picks websites that can help to identify names from the medieval record

Expert's Choice • Malcolm Noble, author of A Practical Introduction to Medieval Genealogy

More great websites • Further online...