From the makers of the award-winning BBC series and Dr Nick Barratt, the UK's leading authority on family history, comes the definitive, must-have guide to researching your family's roots and bringing your family history to life. Containing all you need to know whether you're a new beginner or more experienced researcher. Covering all access levels, from the new beginner to the more experienced researcher, the Encyclopedia of Genealogy is a comprehensive master class in solving the mysteries of your personal heritage. Begining with advice on the very first steps, before providing a detailed explanation of the range of sources you will encounter when trying to flesh out your ancestor's lives. The Encyclopedia is divided into sections, each a fascinating standalone reference article so that you can easily pick and mix the relevant information according to the route your journey through your family history takes you. The Encyclopedia of Genealogy guides you through: * Getting started, including research planning, sources, how to construct a family tree and working online * Going further, combining historical context (from military history to migration and family secrets) with practical advice on sources * Troubleshooting the most common problems such as common surnames and missing ancestors * Surname databases * Use of DNA such as DNA profiling services * Organisational tools such as designing a website and information about software and community projects. Everything you need to bring alive your family tree.

Author Biography

Dr Nick Barratt obtained a PhD in history from King's College London in 1996, and in the same year began working for the Public Records Office (later TNA) before moving to the BBC as in-house specialist researcher. In 2000, Nick established Sticks Research Agency (SRA), Nick is founder and CEO of SRA. Major projects undertaken include the research for the first three series of BBC's flagship genealogy programme Who Do You Think You Are, with series four in production. Nick has also researched and presented the recent series Hidden House Histories for the History Channel and So You Think You're Royal (Sky One). He has also made numerous TV appearances, acting as an informal spokesperson for history, and genealogy. (BBC Breakfast News, This Morning, GMTV among others.) He has also appeared on TV as the 'document expert' on House Detectives, and co-presented BBC2's Open University programme History Mysteries.Nick has provided research for the BAFTA nominated Seven Wonders of the Industrial World (BBC2); as well as One Foot in the Past (BBC2), Invasion (BBC2), Not Forgotten (C4), You Don't Know You're Born (ITV1) and The Face of Britain (Channel 4). Nick has his own weekly column in the Daily Telegraph called The Family Detective and has published several books, including Tracing the History of Your House (TNA, 2nd ed, 2006), The Family Detective (2006) and Who Do You Think You Are 2 (2005) and 3(2006) to accompany the TV series two and three as well as the Who Do You Think You Are Encyclopedia of Geneology.