Those of you who follow me on social media will know that I’m an avid reader and have something of a book buying compulsion. Let’s just say the pile of books in the “to read” category far exceeds my available free time in the near future! Still, it is always better to “be prepared”… It is, therefore, perhaps unsurprising that this is not a recent book release review. Published six years apart, The Stranger in My Genes, and its sequel, Strangers No More, are a pair of books that I purchased around a year ago and had been lamenting in that lonely “to read” pile ever since.  The Stranger in ..read more

Subscription site update The Genealogist issued a press release today revealing the addition of 125,000 records to its headstone collection. These records are to be found in series RG 37 at The National Archives and relate to the removal of human remains and the associated headstones (not just headstones) and are a fascinating source of information. You can access the collection by searching the “Deaths & Burials” section in Master Search and filtering down to “Headstones”. Here is an example of a Cowling record, located at St Paul, Chester Road, Hooton, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. The ..read more

The Announcement RootsTech has just finished in Salt Lake City in the US and we were all excited to find out the latest innovations from the big companies. Personally, I’m always looking out for the DNA-related announcements. Some big news from My Heritage is the announcement of the release of its new DNA tool, cM Explainer. The following comes from the press release [1]: “cM Explainer [is] an innovative, free new feature that accurately estimates familial relationships between DNA Matches. For every DNA Match, cM Explainer offers a detailed prediction of the possible relationships between th ..read more

Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) have recently released some fantastic new tools which are of great use to those of us using Y-DNA. Y-DNA is not the DNA you test at Ancestry, My Heritage etc (that’s autosomal DNA), it is the DNA that is passed relatively unchanged down the male line for many generations (see diagram below). The descent of Y-DNA Y-DNA is often used by those running surname studies as, in principle, the descent of the male line is the same as the descent of the surname. Y-DNA can therefore be used to assess the likelihood of all bearers of a particular surname arising from the same sin ..read more

© Suffolk Free Press, first published September 2018 Not the smoothest start Like many of you, I have had a mixed 2022. I started January on enforced bed rest following emergency surgery to repair a detached retina. Whilst the recovery took a lot longer than anticipated, I am happy to report that I am now much recovered. I will never get the full sight back in that eye but I am able to do everything I need to with glasses now, so I count my blessings it was operated on as quickly as it was (thanks to our marvellous NHS! ). Research and DNA On the genealogical research front I was deligh ..read more

As you know, I take my genealogy research very seriously but sometimes it’s good to have “just a bit of fun” with it too. Many of you will have seen My Heritage’s tool, Deep Nostalgia, which was released in early 2021 and brought photos of loved ones “back to life”. The latest tool from My Heritage, AI (Artificial Intelligence) Time Machine, is set to allow us to travel in time! If you are user of social media you will probably have seen people posting their results already. There have also been some reports about it in the press, such as this article from the Daily Mail. Here you can see an e ..read more

Abbey Gardens, Bury St Edmunds It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post. This fact is heavily connected to the fact that it has been a long time since I was able to carry out any “proper” genealogical research. You know the sort, where you actually venture into real archival repositories (instead of being constrained by covid to online research only). Recently I was delighted to make a trip back to one of my favourite archives: Suffolk Archives at Bury St Edmunds. I mean what’s not to like? What more perfect route to “work” could there be than a walk through the Abbey Gardens, followe ..read more

A week ago I posted a question on social media: “what’s your favourite family tree software?” I’ve been updating some Pharos Tutors course notes this week (if you’re interested: Advanced Methods and Reports). The course is on methodology and report writing and there are a few places where we look at what can (and can’t) be achieved with family tree software. Rather than leave things as they were, I decided I would like to use examples from software packages that more students were likely to use, and make sure I included a range. After all, there’s no point me taking screenshots from my ow ..read more

At this time of year I often look back and reflect upon the year just gone. Ordinarily I would have called this post “Looking back at 2020” but I think we all need to look forward to better times. This year has seen me doing as much DNA related consulting as what is becoming more frequently referred to now as “traditional genealogy”. Next year I can foresee my research work being split around 50:50 between the two. I’m also planning a major overhaul of the Professional Family History website and there will be some tips on getting started with DNA. The big change for me this year, however, occ ..read more

  Some of you may have already seen the announcements from Pharos Teaching & Tutoring Ltd, a leading provider in online genealogy education. I have recently purchased the company from previous owner, Helen Osborn, and am now the new Managing Director. You can read the full announcement here: Pharos Tutors under new ownership.     What does this mean for my research business and clients? In reality not a huge amount at all. For the last few years I have been spending around half my time on research projects and half on tutoring whether for Pharos, for the IHGS or writing ta ..read more