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Find her story

There are 39 million fewer women than men in our family trees. Don’t let their stories be lost to history. Here’s what you can do.

Grow your family tree to discover, preserve and share inspiring women's stories

Uncover the world they lived in with our extensive newspaper archives

Add photos and heirlooms to bring your female forebears to life

From suffragettes to everyday heroines, explore millions of fascinating women’s history records

Start your family tree now.Let's start with you...

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There are 39 million fewer women than men in our family trees. Don’t let their stories be lost to history. Here’s what you can do.

Grow your family tree to discover, preserve and share inspiring women's stories

Uncover the world they lived in with our extensive newspaper archives

Add photos and heirlooms to bring your female forebears to life

From suffragettes to everyday heroines, explore millions of fascinating women’s history records

Spotlighting the stories of inspirational women

Play your part in writing women back into history by learning about the amazing lives of these five women. From abolitionists to astronomers, they overcame hardship and fought passionately for what they believed in.

Elizabeth Heyrick is our herstory heroine

We uncovered the stories of five overlooked women from history using our records and newspapers and asked you who you thought should be commemorated with a public vote.

We're delighted to announce that slavery abolitionist Elizabeth Heyrick came out on top. Her story has been immortalised with a plaque in her hometown of Leicester.

Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2024 logo

Empowering women to tell real-life stories

As sponsors of the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, we are championing female authors. In 2022, just 30% of non-fiction bestsellers were written by women - another important gender equality imbalance we want to address.

Kate Mosse, CBE

Supported by Kate Mosse CBE...

“This is a rallying call to redress the balance and to actively seek out and remember the stories of our female ancestors. I’m delighted to be part of this effort to expand our understanding and celebrate some of the amazing women whose contributions have been previously overlooked or lost.”

Photo © Ruth Crafer

Discover and celebrate the incredible women in your family tree

Our extensive collections reveal stories of success and survival, love and loss.

Top three tips for researching female ancestors

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What’s in a name?

Search for various combinations of women’s names across multiple sources.

Search records
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Get the scoop

Newspapers can reveal maiden names in marriage announcements and even photos.

Search newspapers
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Keep an open mind

Even unlikely sources, like male-dominated military records, may hide women’s stories.

Search military records

Herstory’s most inspirational women

Florence Nightingale. Marie Curie. Emmeline Pankhurst. Eleanor Roosevelt. Rosa Parks. Queen Elizabeth II. The past is full of female figures that left their mark. Learn more about their stories, and your own, with our library of women's history resources.

Must-know women’s history trivia

Brush up on your knowledge of feminism and women in history with answers to some of the most asked questions.

Search for a relative in over 4 million family trees

Trace your family back in time and see what other Findmypast family historians in our genealogy community have discovered about your ancestors.

Do you have a family tree somewhere else?

Don't worry, you don't have to start again - you can import your family tree as a GEDCOM file from another genealogy website.

Import your GEDCOM