About The Family Tree UK website

Hello. My name is Andrew Martin and I am a family history addict.

I began this site on 28th November 1998, about 2.5 years into my family history research.

My addiction with all things genealogy began after my paternal uncle brought a hand-drawn family tree of my Martin family - showing (as I'd later learn) my Great Grandfather, his siblings, and parents. This was accompanied by some fascinating Victorian and Edwardian original photographs.

From that moment, I was hooked, and set myself a goal to discover as much as I could about those names and faces.

Fortunately for me, my maternal and paternal families have spent the best part of 427 years living within the county of Cambridgeshire, England. This has made it much easier, and satisfying, to research, as I also live in it.

Organisations like The Cambridgeshire Family History Society, The Cambridgeshire Collection, and The Littleport Society, have proven invaluable to my ongoing research. I have also spent countless hours sitting in the research room of the Cambridgeshire Archives, where their team, and the researchers around me, have been so incredibly helpful and knowledgeable.

After years as an Honorary Member of The Littleport Society, I was co-opted onto the Society committee in June 2015. I am now working with them to index their vast collection of artefacts.

The History Repeating blog

In the Christmas to New Year lull of 2007, I began the History Repeating blog, as a channel for me to talk about my current research, share stories, and to give me more of a conversation space with genealogists and casual readers.

This has grown to allow me to use social media, all of which has helped distant relatives find me in search engines, and help to extend or flesh-out the branches of my family tree.

My use of Twitter and Flickr, has also allowed me to connect with many other researchers, and compare techniques and latest family history friendly technology. It's become much more of a social activity now - aided by attending the Who Do You Think You Are? Live shows for a number of consecutive years.

I've really enjoyed researching my family tree, and I want people to see that it is not just a room full of old people thumbing dusty old lists, it's more than that, it's about bringing these stories, these lives, these families back to life and sharing that with relatives and friends, in the most useful and convenient way.

The Family Histories Podcast

To build upon that, in 2021 I began recording and hosting the podcast The Family Histories Podcast - in an attempt to celebrate those of us who in archives, libraries, and spare rooms, who are tirelessly piecing together our collective social and family history. It's been a delight to talk to my guests, and find out about their genealogy journey, and the stories of the people they've discovered.

DNA Tests

I took an autosomal DNA test with Ancestry years ago, and in 2021 I also took a haplogroup DNA test with LivingDNA. This revealed that my maternal haplogroup is T1a, and my paternal haplogroup is R-L21.

If you like what you see on this site - share it. We're all related somehow.

Happy researching!

Andrew Martin