Discover Your Ancestors
Two critically acclaimed publications are available to family history researchers - the annual print magazine, Discover Your Ancestors, and the monthly online magazine, Discover Your Ancestors Periodical. Click here to subscribe.Picturing the Past
Introducing a valuable new online resource to bring the past to life
Family history data website TheGenealogist.co.uk has become the first family history website to launch a dedicated Image Archive that allows you to view historic images in both standard and '3D' forms. These historical pictures allow you to relive the past through the eyes of your ancestors. The standard images are free for everyone to search and view and cover the period from 1850 to 1940. You can explore thousands of images there – with more being added regularly – via www.TheGenealogist.co.uk/ImageArchive.
We all want to know more about the lives our ancestors led. Adding a picture to the family story is the perfect complement to any research. TheGenealogist's new Image Archive allows anyone to search and view images of towns, landmarks, churches, resorts, occupations and military campaigns. They also include images of social interest showing how your ancestors could have led their lives. You may even be able to find the church where your ancestor was baptised or married.
Diamond subscribers to TheGenealogist can also view and download the images in a high resolution format for extra clarity.
The Image Archive is fully searchable and is divided up into sections to allow users to find relevant images of interest, quickly and easily. You can search by keyword or title. All the images are tagged and rated for quality to further assist the researcher.
Hundreds of the images are also available in stunning '3D' to really bring the past to life. With scenes of the hustle and bustle of market day to the drama of war, there's a selection to view as both 3D moving images and as 3D 'red blue' images (requiring tinted glasses).
Many other scenes are available in a standard format to view, with images not only from the British Isles but also internationally, with scenes ranging from Aldershot to Zanzibar. On these pages we showcase a variety of the images available and how they can illuminate the past.
Visit www.TheGenealogist.co.uk/ImageArchive to search the collection and view images for free – you can search by title and keywords or filter by category such as 'occupation' or 'building'.
Alas we can't show the effect of '3D' images in a magazine format, the TheGenealogist's Image Archive has hundreds of images of this kind. They can be viewed either as 'wigglegrams' (animated images flipping back and forth between two frames) or standard 'red and blue' image like the one above, which comes to life when you wear 3D glasses.
There could even be a chance of spotting one of your ancestors in the collection – there are many group photos such as these. Above is Luton Salvation Army Band posed in someone's garden in 1890; below is B Company of the Royal Sussex Regiment in Punjab 1912, after winning an inter-company football competition.
B Company of the Royal Sussex Regiment in Punjab 1912, after winning an inter-company football competition.
Slices of social history: the picture above shows people dancing on Blackpool Pier in 1897. Below is one of many colour images in the collection, from a postcard depicting different scenes in a Lancashire cotton mill.
A postcard depicting different scenes in a Lancashire cotton mill.
Wartime also features in the image archive. Below are British Royal Engineers constructing second line trenches in Flanders in WW1. The collection also has images from the Boer War, the Indian Mutiny and the Irish War of independence.