Who Do You Think You Are?

When working tree, it is very amazing hidden gems tucked away in archives up and down the country that we might be missing out on. I was really moved by this month's ‘Gem from the Archive’ on page 68. I have medics in my family who have served in three wars and, if any of them had served with the West Riding Field Ambulance Service, I would have gone up to Sheffield City Archives in a heartbeat to pore over the magazine that had been put together by these talented young men.…

There's nothing more central to a family tree than the core life events of birth, marriage and death. However, while birth and death happen to us all, marriage can be a little more complicated. One area that can cause confusion relates to the legality of marriage. Why couldn't you marry your brother's widow, and when did that change? Has it always been legal to marry your first cousin? On page 14 legal historian Rebecca Probert answers these questions and more. I certainly learnt a thing or two! We've also had some great fun this month exploring men's facial hair in the 19th century (page 18). It has definitely made me look at my family photographs with a new eye. Although I have few from the Victorian era, I can see…

REBECCA PROBERT Rebecca is a professor of law and leading expert in the history of marriage. On page 14 she looks at the thorny issue of how the Church and the law controlled who you could marry. ALUN WITHEY Alun is a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter specialising in the history of medicine and the body. He writes about beards on page 18, and blogs at dralun.wordpress.com. CAROLINE ROOPE A regular writer for us (and self-proclaimed history nerd), this month Caroline turns her attention to Easter traditions from bottle kicking to chocolate eggs – see page 56.…

Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79 – so drop us a line and share your thoughts with us. TIMELINE TREASURES With reference to Chloe O'Shea's article on timelines in the February issue, I thought I'd share my own way of using timelines in my research. I find timelines a superb way of separating individual ancestors into bite-size pieces. I've taken the whole thing a stage further and have produced individual stories on characters that I find interesting. This helps piece together why I am me, and why I ended up living where I do. I've produced rough layouts in InDesign (I'm an ex-magazine designer) with the…

Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk to feature your event here for free PICK OF THE MONTH Don't miss this event in south-west England SOUTH WEST FHF REALLY USEFUL FAMILY HISTORY SHOW 29 March a Kinson Community Centre, Bournemouth t 01202 785623 w dorsetfhs.org.uk/events-activities/family-history-day/ The Family History Federation will host its latest show in partnership with Dorset Family History Society and Devon Family History Society. There will be two talks – ‘Making the Most of Your Autosomal DNA Matches’ by Debbie Kennett (pictured) and ‘The A-Z of Family History’ by Janet Few – plus the chance to book one-to-one consultations with the following experts: Sally Macdougall (dating photos), Laurie Page (reading old handwriting), Debbie Kennett (DNA) and members of both family history societies (general research advice). There will also be an exhibition hall and…

The National Archives at Kew (TNA; nationalarchives.gov.uk) has been trialling the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for the past 12 months and plans to use it to transcribe and translate records, WDYTYA? Magazine has learnt. On 4 February, in response to a written question from Sir John Hayes MP, the minister for culture, media and sport Chris Bryant revealed, “TNA has used artificial intelligence for over the past 12 months and its officials have, with robust safeguards, piloted the use of AI in several areas.” Bryant outlined the areas as follows, saying that TNA is seeking to “Speed up office-based tasks. For example, piloting the transcription of some internal meetings and summarising texts. “Improve public services. For example, investigating creating short summaries of record descriptions for the online catalogue and…