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From today members can now view passenger lists which include those who departed British ports for long-distance voyages across the world from 1890 to 1960.

I am Estelle and I have been working for Genes Reunited since 2004. I am also a keen genealogist and have been tracing my own family history since 1995. Needless to say this job is like a dream come true working for a family history website!

A recent visit to see my parents ended up in us all glued to Genes Reunited, as we were adding into my tree a few more details about my Dad's family. The very recent discovery about Chester Wood needed updating and we started to look again into the details of Dad's grandparents. Rumour in the family suggests that Ella, Dad's Grandma was a kept woman, as her husband, Arthur wasn't a ‘family' man. We had their basic details, but we wanted to try and find Ella and Arthur's marriage certificate, as there was uncertainty in the family that a marriage actually took place. We drew a blank, even using variance searches for their names, especially for Ella Trautmann - you can imagine the potential spellings!

Hi, I'm Rhoda and I've been the Head of Genes Reunited for about a year now. Prior to that I was interested in my family history but on talking to relatives it transpired that a bit of the research had already been done, and a few names had been plotted into a paper tree. I want to share with you the journey I have been on over the last year, and hope to share with you my family's lineage as I make discoveries in the course of time. I'm not just interested in building a tree, but also in building the social history of my family. My Dad's an artist, his Mum was also very creative - is there a familial link? My Mum's a nurse, as was her Mum - how many generations does that go back? Are there any names and other family traits that go back down the line? I want to know how my ancestors lived, where and how they died, and how did we all seem to live in and around Nottingham - especially as my maternal Grandad is Irish.

After 10 years of commuting on the London Underground to work in the City of London every day, I finally dragged my bicycle out from the back of the garage and for the last few months have been enjoying the sun (and wind and rain and traffic) to pedal into the office. Previously I would have read the free morning Metro newspaper or even dragged my laptop out to cram in a little extra work (before I started working for Genes Reunited - who allow me to have a slightly healthier attitude to work). Little did I appreciate how stimulating the cycle would be not just my fitness, but for my mind too. I feel like I am almost reverting into a small child who constantly asks the questions "why", "what" and "who".

Hi, my name is Phil Moir, and I am a developer on the Genes Reunited team, as well as being a keen amateur genealogist. The purpose behind my choice in writing this blog is three fold. Firstly, I want to engage with the members of Genes Reunited, let you know what we're up to and why, as well as finding out what you collectively want from our service. Secondly, I want to help members explore their family tree and family history, with examples of problems faced from my own research. And thirdly, I want to tell my family story, a journey many are only just starting out on. By doing this I hope to enthuse and motivate you all to join in with your own story telling.

This week's Long Lost Family focused on two women born to unmarried mothers in the 1960's. Back then having a child out of wedlock was perceived as a "dirty secret". Sarah Gayle and Laura McCarthy have both spent a lifetime searching for their mothers and the Long Lost Family team helped them with their search.

Another amazing episode of Long Lost family last night on ITV1.

The second programme of Long Lost Family on Thursday 28^th April was incredibly emotional from beginning to end. 

The first episode of Long Lost Family told the stories of Jennifer Wilson and Karen Lloyd.  Both had emotional tales, telling how they had never felt complete once they knew a close family member wasn't in their lives.