Local and social history are closely linked with family history. They enable us to discover more about our ancestors’ lives, adding detail to core information about life events. Our speakers discuss the value of local and social history and how to incorporate it into our research.

Joe is joined by Paul Chiddicks, Family Tree magazine’s Dear Paul and blogger; Natalie Pithers, founder of Genealogy Stories and creator of the Curious Descendants Club, helping you to write and share your ancestors stories. Project and Comms Manager at Society of Genealogists and Margaret Roberts, sports historian and editor of the Playing Pasts online sports history magazine, publicity officer for the FHS of Cheshire and Society Liaison Officer for the Federation and part of the A Few Forgotten Women research team,

Paul Chiddicks at https://chiddicksfamilytree.com and https://oldpalaceschoolbombing.com/

Natalie Pithers  https://genealogystories.co.uk/

Margaret Roberts http://www.playingpasts.co.uk, https://www.fhsc.org.uk, https://afewforgottenwomen.wixsite.com/affw.

People in the past moved about a lot more than we might think. In this episode our guests discuss the historical migration of people within Britain, including the kind of movements you might find in your family tree, what this can tell us and how we can research migrating ancestors.

Joe is joined by Janet Few, historical researcher, writer, speaker and President of the Family History Federation;  Jane Hough, amateur genealogist and blogger and Gill Thomas, professional family historian specialising in Welsh records and chair of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives.

Many of us will have questioned at some point in our research whether our ancestors were really married. In this episode our guests discuss how you can tell if people were married or not, share some stories and offer tips, including to use Rebecca Probert’s, Marriage Law for Genealogists.

Joe is joined by Kelly Cornwell, professional family historian, blogger and speaker; Antony Marr, retired professional family historian and former chair of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives and Dave Annal, professional family historian, lecturer, author and former principal Family History Specialist at The National Archives

Kelly Cornwell https://whoamifamilytreeresearch.co.uk/,

Antony Marr 

Dave Annal https://lifelinesresearch.co.uk/.

Family history research can quickly become an expensive hobby. However, there is a wealth of free resources that we can use to help with our research while keeping costs down. We discuss some of the different free (online and in-person) resources available in this episode.

Joe is joined by Jackie Depelle, family and local historian, speaker and tutor; Janet Barrie, historian and chair of the Society for One-place Studies and Margaret Roberts, sports historian and editor of the Playing Pasts online sports history magazine, publicity officer for the FHS of Cheshire and Society Liaison Officer for the Federation and part of the A Few Forgotten Women research team,

Jackie Depelle  http://www.yourfairladies.co.uk,

Janet Barrie http://www.springhillhistory.org.uk/

Margaret Roberts http://www.playingpasts.co.uk, https://www.fhsc.org.uk, https://afewforgottenwomen.wixsite.com/affw.

It can be very enjoyable to write about our family history. It is also a useful way to focus our research. In this episode our guests discuss the different ways to write up our family histories and offer some advice for doing so.

Joe is joined by Natalie Pithers, who runs the Curious Descendants Club which helps people write their family history https://genealogystories.co.uk, Mish Holman, professional genealogist who researches and writes up family histories into books https://www.familyhistorygifts.co.uk/, Paul Chiddicks, Family Tree magazine’s ‘Dear Paul’ and blogger at https://chiddicksfamilytree.com and https://oldpalaceschoolbombing.com/ and Matthew Abel, museum professional at the V&A and family historian.

Family History Federation: www.familyhistoryfederation.com

By learning about occupations, we gain a better understanding of the lives of our ancestors such as their health conditions and how they spent their spare time. Our guests share stories and offer advice in this special extended episode.

Joe is joined by Margaret Roberts, sports historian and editor of the Playing Pasts online sports history magazine, Publicity Officer for the FHS of Cheshire and Society Liaison Officer for the Federation http://www.playingpasts.co.uk and https://www.fhsc.org.uk, Sophie Kay, professional genealogist at Khronicle https://www.khronicle.co.uk/ and Ian Waller, retired professional genealogist, Vice-Chairman and Education Officer of the Federation, Fellow of the Society of Genealogist and author of three books in the ‘My Ancestor Was…’ series.

Family History Federation: www.familyhistoryfederation.com

Collaboration is incredibly valuable for historical researchers of all kinds. Members of the Historians Collaborate group discuss their activities, why we should all work together and how we might do so. https://historianscollaborate.com

Joe is joined by Else Churchill, Genealogist at the Society of Genealogists https://www.sog.org.uk, Jackie Depelle, family historian and family history teacher https://depellejg.wixsite.com/mysite, Mike Esbester, lecturer in history and co-lead on the Railway Work, Life & Death Project http://www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk and Julia Laite, professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/profile/8009689/julia-laite

Family History Federation: www.familyhistoryfederation.com

One of the most rewarding things we can do as genealogists is to talk about our family history with relatives. We discuss approaching family members for their knowledge as well as sharing findings with our families.

Joe is joined by Kelly Cornwell, professional genealogist, speaker and blogger https://whoamifamilytreeresearch.co.uk, Mish Holman, professional genealogist and blogger https://theswancircle.co.uk and https://www.familyhistorygifts.co.uk and Jane Hough, family historian and blogger https://www.allthosebefore.org.uk Andrew Martin, family historian, cataloguer, digital archivist and host of The Family Histories Podcast https://li.sten.to/familyhistoriespodcast https://www.familytreeuk.co.uk

Family History Federation: www.familyhistoryfederation.com

While it is certainly true that not everything is online, an increasing amount of source material for family history can be found through the internet. Our guests share some of their favourite, lesser-known places to find online genealogy resources.

Joe is joined by Kelly Cornwell, professional family historian, blogger and speaker https://whoamifamilytreeresearch.co.uk, Natalie Pithers, professional family historian and founder of the Curious Descendants Club https://genealogystories.co.uk and Margaret Roberts, editor of the Playing Pasts online sports history magazine, Publicity Officer for the FHS of Cheshire and Society Liaison Officer for the Federation http://www.playingpasts.co.uk and https://www.fhsc.org.uk

Family History Federation: www.familyhistoryfederation.com

Every family historian has a story about how they got into family history. We share our experiences of starting out with this great hobby and share tips for others who are just beginning.

Joe is joined by Mish Holman, professional genealogist who is particularly interested in theatre ancestors and census enumerators https://www.familyhistorygifts.co.uk/, Kelly Cornwell, professional family historian, blogger and speaker https://whoamifamilytreeresearch.co.uk, Jane Hough, amateur genealogist and blogger https://www.allthosebefore.org.uk/ and Andrew Martin, family historian, author, digital archivist and host of The Family Histories Podcast https://li.sten.to/familyhistoriespodcast https://www.familytreeuk.co.uk/

Family History Federation: www.familyhistoryfederation.com