The Christmas period is one of the most popular times of the year for people to research their family history. With the family gathered around for the festivities, it’s the perfect time to quiz the older generations on what they remember about the family, and get the youngsters inspired too.

That’s why findmypast.co.uk is launching Start Your Family Tree Week this Christmas. From 26 December to 1 January make sure you visit findmypast.co.uk for a week of fantastic special offers and guides to help you start your family tree. Make the most of your time off to get down to some serious research.

Every day during Start Your Family Tree Week there will be some very special offers available on findmypast.co.uk, including:

• A getting started guide
• Easy to download family tree charts
• A guide to interviewing your relatives
• Help with getting your relatives online
• Competitions and prize draws
• Discounts and free trials
• Tips and advice
• Free downloadable family history tools and software

A festive family history challenge you won’t want to miss

We’re also setting you a festive challenge during Start Your Family Tree Week. Each day on findmypast.co.uk’s blog, we’ll post a competition question for you to answer. Make sure you visit the blog every day - you’ll need to answer all the questions correctly to be in with a chance of winning our prizes.

We have a huge Christmas hamper full of amazing prizes to give away, including:

Your family history researched by a professional genealogist, tickets to Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE show in February 2011, subscriptions to BBC WDYTYA magazine and Your Family Tree magazine, scanners, family history books and subscriptions to findmypast.co.uk

Keep an eye on our blog for details of how to enter the challenge coming soon.

Other websites taking part in Start Your Family Tree Week are: GenesReunited.co.uk, Eneclann, my-history.co.uk, www.yourfamilytreemag.co.uk and whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com

Supporting Start Your Family Tree Week are: the Society of Genealogists, the Federation of Family History Societies, Pen and Sword Books, BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, Your Family Tree magazine and Family Tree Magazine.

A big thank you to all of you who came to visit the findmypast.co.uk stand at the West Surrey Family History Society open day in Woking on Saturday and to those of you who entered our competition. We’ve rummaged around in our competition box and can now reveal our lucky winners!

Winner of a 12 month Full subscription: Penny Holt

Winners of two 6 month Full subscriptions: Andrew Jones and Celia Stanley

Congratulations to all of you and we hope you enjoy your subscriptions!

We ask you to complete our customer feedback surveys because we really value your input. When you fill in our surveys you provide us with invaluable feedback about how we can improve the service we offer you. As a thank you for taking part in these surveys we have awarded a year’s Full subscription to the following people:

August 2010 - Joy Cross
September 2010 - Pirjo Welch
October 2010 - Keith Myers

Many thanks to all of you who took the time to complete our surveys. We award our prizes quarterly so the next round of prizes will be awarded in February 2011.

What are your Christmas plans this year? Complete our survey and you could win an early present for yourself - a digital camera! 

Take the Christmas survey now!

Feel free to let your family and friends know about the competition so that they can enter too!

Thanks to everyone who came to visit the findmypast.co.uk stand at the Back to Our Past fair in Dublin last weekend, and especially to those of you who entered our competition. We can now reveal the names of our lucky winners (drum roll, please!)…

Winners of 12 month Full subscriptions: Ronald Tucker, Heather Gandola and Marcella Ryan

Winners of 6 month Full subscriptions: Ann Clarke, Laura Gannon, Rory O’Kennedy, Sharon White, Ed Penrose and Kathleen Glennon.

Congratulations to all of you and we hope you enjoy your subscriptions!

Another weekend and another family history fair for findmypast.co.uk! Fantastic to see so many of our customers at the Bristol and Avon Family History Society Open Day on Saturday - hope you all had an enjoyable day.

Thanks to everyone who entered our competition. We can now reveal the names of our three lucky winners…

Winner of a 12 month Full subscription: Maggie Hammett

Winners of two 6 month Full subscriptions: Garry Checksfield and Lorraine Clark

Congratulations!

A big thank you to all of you who came to visit the findmypast.co.uk stand at Saturday’s National Family History Fair in Newcastle and to those of you who entered our competition. We’ve rummaged around in our competition box and can now reveal our lucky winners!

Winner of a 12 month Full subscription: Peter Salter

Winners of two 6 month Full subscriptions: Joanna Drewery and Judith Hulme

Congratulations to all of you and we hope you enjoy your subscriptions!

We ask you to complete our customer feedback surveys because we really value your input. When you fill in our surveys you provide us with invaluable feedback about the ways in which we can improve the service we offer you. As a thank you for taking part in these surveys we have awarded a year’s Full subscription to the following people:

May 2010 - Elaine Cherry
June 2010 - Marjorie Kellington
July 2010 - Maurice Robe

Thanks to all of you who took the time to complete our surveys. We award our prizes quarterly so the next round of prizes will be awarded in November.

A big thank you to all of you who came to visit the findmypast stand at last Saturday’s Yorkshire Family History Fair and those of you who entered our competition. We’ve rummaged around in our competition box and randomly picked our winners - drum roll please!

Winner of a 12 month Full subscription: Jillian Cook

Winners of two 6 month Full subscriptions: Karen Bate and Michael Wardman

Congratulations to all of you and we hope you enjoy your subscriptions!

We really value your input at findmypast.co.uk. Completing our user surveys means that you provide us with ways in which we can improve our service to you. As a thank you for taking part in these surveys we have awarded a year’s Full subscription to the following people:

February 2010 - Stephen Mills
March 2010 - Gordon Nicoll
April 2010 - Paul Edden

Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete our surveys. The prizes are awarded quarterly so the next round of prizes will be awarded in August.