In “My Best Genealogy Tips: Researching Your English Roots,” I will provide guidance on how to begin researching your ancestors in England, and I will show tips on how to gather information about your ancestors. You will start using what is online. It is important that you start an online family tree. I will describe how you can add your family to that family tree, and I show you the benefits of doing so. You can be looking for your family and not find them where they lived – or so you thought. Boundaries can be challenging so I will make sure you know how to tell which boundary they lived. Next, I will describe the distinct types of genealogical records. Some for England are census, church, and probate. All kinds of online resources are at your disposal. They provide a comprehensive list that can aid you in your England genealogy research. They are divided into births, marriages, deaths, divorces, cemeteries, censuses, military, wills, probate, and much more. Local resources provide information on what the England Archives and England Libraries have to see. I will make sure you know what is out there. There are county archives, museums, and record offices. I will show you how to do case studies by abstracting information from historical records. You then will evaluate the information. You will then be able to share successful genealogical research with family so they can apply strategies to their own research. Sometimes you cannot find ancestors. That is where DNA offers many benefits. You will also learn how to share with family and online. Today we do not write letters for example, because our family is on Facebook so we can post the records, photo, and story. Even putting out a blog post can attract cousins. By finding out about educational opportunities, you can keep abreast of recent technology and new strategies. I will show you where they are. I reference genealogical societies, RootsTech, FamilySearch Center, and the Family History Federation. All I have to say is get your mobile phone out! This is the new age. You can go to the website and keep reading about English Roots.

Updated edition: A genealogist’s practical guide to researching family history online while avoiding inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading information. The internet has revolutionized family history research—every day new records and resources are placed online and new methods of sharing research and communicating become available. Never before has it been so easy to research family history and to gain a better understanding of who we are and where we came from. But, as British genealogist Chris Paton demonstrates in this second edition of his straightforward, practical guide, while the internet is an enormous asset, it is also something to be wary of. For this edition, Paton has checked and updated all the links and other sources, added new ones, written a new introduction, and substantially expanded the social networking section. As always, researchers need to take a cautious approach to the information they acquire on the web. Where did the original material come from? Has it been accurately reproduced? Why was it put online? What has been left out and what is still to come? As he leads researchers through the multitude of resources that are now accessible online with an emphasis on UK and Ireland sites, Chris Paton helps to answer these questions. He shows what the internet can and cannot do—and he warns against the various traps researchers can fall into along the way.

Your English Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans was the first book to provide a logical research routine for family historians based in North America. Since the first edition of Your English Ancestry was published in 1993, genealogy has become even more popular, the Internet has become an important tool for many researchers, and there have been significant changes in local government and in the storage of major records in England.