The Thompson History

Category: Learning

  • Review: The Family History Show, London

    Review: The Family History Show, London

    When I first started doing my family history research in the late 1980s there was nothing online and everything had to be done “in real life” or IRL as the youth like to say. I would go to Kew or Somerset House and open out heavy volumes to look at the indexes and then wait…

  • Property and Maps: Bringing Your Ancestors’ World to Life

    Property and Maps: Bringing Your Ancestors’ World to Life

    Family historians spend much of their time collecting names, dates and places. We search census returns, parish registers, birth certificates and probate records in an effort to reconstruct the lives of our ancestors. Yet one of the most powerful tools available to genealogists is often overlooked: maps. Maps allow us to move beyond names and…

  • Breaking Brick Walls with Evidentia: What It Is — and What It Isn’t

    Breaking Brick Walls with Evidentia: What It Is — and What It Isn’t

    NOTE: When I wrote this I was using v3 of Evidentia but since then v3Plus has been released. This has a refreshed UI and seems to be a stepping stone to the next major release. All of what is in this post remains true for all versions. Most family historians build their research around a…

  • Wills, Probate and Family Secrets

    Wills, Probate and Family Secrets

    Wills and probate records are among the richest and most revealing sources available to family historians. Beyond simply listing possessions or money, they can uncover relationships, family tensions, occupations, property ownership and sometimes even long-forgotten stories. In this article we explore how wills and probate records can help bring ancestors to life and where these…

  • Simple Backup Strategies — Protecting Your Family History Research

    Simple Backup Strategies — Protecting Your Family History Research

    If you spend time researching your family history, your computer probably contains years of work: census records, certificates, scanned photographs, family stories, research notes, and carefully built family trees. Losing that data through a computer failure or accidental deletion can be devastating. The good news is that backing up your files does not need to…

  • Using NotebookLM in your Genealogical Research

    Using NotebookLM in your Genealogical Research

    In a previous post I talked about how AI can help family historians with their research and the pitfalls that you need to look out for. In a later post I talked about how AI helped me break down a long standing brick wall in my research. In this post we’re taking a look at…

  • Preserving Family Photos: A Practical Guide for Genealogists

    Preserving Family Photos: A Practical Guide for Genealogists

    For anyone interested in family history, photographs are among the most precious items we have. They bring names and dates to life, offering a tangible connection to the past. But photos—both physical and digital—are surprisingly fragile. Without a bit of care and planning, they can fade, deteriorate, or simply disappear. This guide covers the key…

  • Using Newspapers in Family History

    Using Newspapers in Family History

    The stories behind our ancestors When we start researching our family history, we tend to focus on the “big” records — birth certificates, census returns, marriage records and wills. These are essential, of course, but they only tell us the bare facts. If you really want to bring your ancestors to life, newspapers are one…

  • Breaking Down a Brickwall with AI: How I found my Great-Great Grandfather

    Breaking Down a Brickwall with AI: How I found my Great-Great Grandfather

    I run a u3a Family History group and our topic last month was “AI and Genealogy” where we looked at the current AI landscape and how it might be able to help you in your family history. This was summerised as follows: This went well, but it made me wonder if I could use AI…

  • Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy: Helpful Assistant or Risky Shortcut?

    Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy: Helpful Assistant or Risky Shortcut?

    Artificial Intelligence is now appearing everywhere — in search engines, photo apps, email tools and even word processors. It was only a matter of time before it reached genealogy. But what does AI actually mean for family historians? Is it transforming research, or simply speeding up what we already do? The answer, as ever in…