How to start researching
your family history.

With yourself, and with the people who remember. GOV.UK’s family history guide gives the same first step: “gather together family memories, photos and documents” before you turn to certificates. Write down what you already know about your parents and grandparents: full names, including maiden names, and the dates and places of births, marriages and deaths. Then follow the National Genealogical Society’s advice for beginners:

Our guides on how to interview your grandparents and the questions to ask them help with the conversations.

Civil registration in England and Wales began on 1 July 1837. Certificates for events since then come from the General Register Office (GRO), not The National Archives. For anything earlier, look for parish registers in local archives: as Surrey History Centre explains, Thomas Cromwell ordered every parish to keep a register of baptisms, marriages and burials on 5 September 1538.

A census has been taken every ten years since 1801, except in 1941, but names from 1801 to 1831 were not collected centrally. The National Archives explains that 1841 was the first census to list the names of every individual, so most searches begin there, although it recorded less than later years. Returns are open from 1841 to 1921, and later ones stay closed for 100 years. The 1921 census was taken on 19 June 1921, postponed from 24 April because of industrial unrest. The 1931 census was destroyed by fire in 1942.

Then follow one household back ten years at a time. From 1851, returns give each person’s relationship to the head of the household, their age, their occupation and where they were born, and the birthplace tells you where to look next.

With the 1931 census lost and none taken in 1941, the 1939 Register is the record to search for those years. Taken on 29 September 1939, it holds details of around 40 million people in more than 65,000 volumes, and was used to produce identity cards and, from January 1940, ration books. It covers England and Wales only.

Records of anyone born less than 100 years ago stay closed unless they are known to have died. You can search the Register on Findmypast and Ancestry, both paid, or free in the reading rooms at The National Archives in Kew.

GOV.UK also lists places where you can search for free in person, such as the Library of Birmingham and Bridgend Local and Family History Centre.

Records give you names, dates, addresses and occupations. They rarely tell you what someone was like, which is why your oldest relatives are your best source, and the one with the least time. Keep what they tell you with the records it explains: scan certificates and photos together, label them, and store copies in more than one place. Our guide to creating a family archive sets out a system.

Ancestorii isn’t a records database or a genealogy research service. It is where you keep what you find alongside the stories: a Loved One profile for each ancestor, with their dates, relationship and a life story in four chapters; timelines of dated events; scanned certificates and photos in a shared family Library; and questions sent from the app to older relatives, who answer in the app. The Free plan covers one loved one, and Premium, at £3.99 a month for the whole family, covers as many as you like. Everything stays private to the family members you invite.

No record holds a moment like this one, from our founder’s family album.