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I thought I would share this email which I received from find my past in case it’s useful:

Christmas is the perfect time to build your family tree as you catch up with relatives and share stories around the Christmas dinner table. Make sure you join findmypast for this year’s Start Your Family Tree Week! Each day from Boxing Day until New Year’s Day, visit findmypast.co.uk and the findmypast Facebook page for hints and tips on how to research your family tree, how to get the most out of their records and a whole host of free gifts and prizes to help you along the way. Get the whole family involved and see how much of your tree you can build together, whether you are starting for the first time or a seasoned expert – you are sure to find something of interest.

Leading family history website findmypast.co.uk has, in partnership with the Royal Archives, added more than 300,000 new records to their Royal Household Staff collection, bringing the total to over 386,000 records. The collection now covers almost four centuries of life in the service of the British Royal Family, stretching from 1526 to 1924.

The records include detailed information about the nature of each staff member’s employment, their salary and their reason for leaving service. Some also contain signatures of staff members, allowing their own handwriting to be seen for, on many occasions, the very first time.

Paul Nixon, Licensing Manager for findmypast.co.uk, said: “While finding a link to royalty is seen by many as one of the most interesting things for a family historian, now we can tell the fascinating stories of those who lived and worked alongside them.”

The records are available on all findmypast sites and can be searched at http://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/other-records/british-royal-archives/

Wills made by English and Welsh soldiers during the First World War have been made available online. Poignant personal messages written by tens of thousands of Britain’s fallen First World War soldiers are being made public online for the first time through an innovative project set up by Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service (HMCTS).

HMCTS is releasing the Probate Office’s huge archive of 280,000 soldiers’ wills ahead of next year’s First World War centenary. Members of the public can now search an online database for a will left by a relative who died in battle, or any other soldier they are interested in learning about, and request copies of any available documents.

Every soldier had to complete a will before they headed to the front line so that their estate could be dealt with if they lost their life. They carried a copy with them and many used the will to write letters to their loved ones, expressing their feelings. Many of the historic documents show the physical damage suffered in the war.

The WW1 wills form part of the archive of 41 million records held by the Probate Service since 1858 which HMCTS is currently in the process of making available to the public, in partnership with technology provider Iron Mountain.

Later this year all the records will be made available through a new online service, enabling members of the public to easily request copies of the documents.

Scanned copies of The First World War wills can be ordered online for £6 each.