Members of the Ancestry World Archives Project have just finished transcribing our new collection London Land Tax Valuations, 1910. This lets you search 4,000 crucial records from the Valuation Books, covering the City of London and Paddington. Whether your relatives were homeowners or tenants, you can find out what their house was like, where it was, how much land was involved, whether they owned it, and more.

This vital collection covers around 35,000 properties in London and includes more than 70,000 names. Because of the amount of migration to and from the capital around the turn of the century, most of you will find at least one ancestor among them. The pages also provide the houses' values, which act as an effective guide to how wealthy your forebears were.

The survey was actually used to work out how much each property had increased in value, and how much tax landowners would have to pay on these increases. As a result, it was hugely unpopular with wealthier members of society. In this case, though, our ancestors' loss is our gain, as we're able to uncover valuable details about their lives.

Hundreds of people have already confirmed they'll be there - including top celebrities from inside and outside the family history world. TV historian Tony Robinson will appear at the Ancestry.co.uk Academy on Friday 25 February.

Tony will be joined by some of your favourite stars from the latest WDYTYA? TV series, sharing their memories from the show and revealing more family secrets. Already confirmed for the Who Do You Think You Are? Theatre are celebrity gardener Monty Don for Friday, Holby City actor Hugh Quarshie for Saturday and finally on Sunday celebrity chef Anisley Harriott.

If you're more interested in furthering your own research, the Ancestry.co.uk Academy will also host different workshops on getting started, going further and tracing forebears around the world. Plus, you'll find a separate tutorial on the new Family Tree Maker® 2011. Download your free timetable

The show's the perfect opportunity to mix with some of family history's most renowned experts, and get solutions to your research problems. Our knowledgeable team will be on-hand to help you on our main stand - 616, and you'll be able to meet top industry insiders from our partners in our exclusive Members' Lounge. You can also get your questions answered in the dedicated Ask the Experts area.

Many of you will have tried our searchable articles from The Times, 1788-1833. You can either look for one of your forebears - if you think they'd have warranted a mention - find a report of a particular event, or browse the editions by date. We also have similar collections from local newspapers across Great Britain and Ireland - see them all in our Card Catalogue

Alongside these headline items, we've recently added some other newsworthy releases. Perhaps most notable of these is the Illustrated London News, covering various years from the second half of the 19th century.

As its name suggests, this was the first British newspaper to regularly include pictures. Among our scanned and searchable pages, you'll see contemporary sketches of important historical events such as the Irish Potato Famine and the Boer War.

We've also released issues of the Penny Magazine from 1832-44. This budget-price journal brought education to the masses, with a mixture of culture, history and poetry. Even if you can't track down specific mentions of your relatives, you may find personal anecdotes about events they attended, or descriptions of places they once visited.

Thank you for all your questions so far. If your question doesn't appear here, you can email our Member Services team at support@ancestry.co.uk and they'll help you with your research.

This month's questions are answered by professional genealogist Anthony Adolph and top military historian Paul Reed.

Missing Will

Q. I've been trying to locate my 3x great-grandfather Walter Miles, born around 1855. The earliest I've located him is his 1876 marriage to Eliza Phillips, where he gives his father's name as Walter and his age as 21. All censuses state he was born in Hampstead/London. However, I can't find him in the birth index, nor in the 1861 or 1871 censuses, and as we're not from a religious background, no baptism records exist.

Unfortunately, I've not been able to locate him in the newly released National Probate Calendar either – he died in Bromley on 7 December 1928. Are there any other records that would prove useful?

Ant Miles

A. It's a shame that you can't find a will for Walter, but not everyone left one. Though the family may not have been very religious, you can't know that Walter was not baptised. Not to have been baptised would have been unusual in the 1850s, so you should look for a baptism record, starting with the London Parish Records at Ancestry.co.uk.

The age '21' given at marriage can simply mean that the person was (or claimed to be) over the age of consent. So, I would make a thorough search several years either side of 1855 in the official birth index, and also check under the possible variant Myles, and possible misreadings such as Mills, Wiles and Wills.

On the 1861 Census, I've found a Walter Miles born about 1853, son of Walter, in Hackney. His birth place of Hackney doesn't match, but either it, or the later statement about Hampstead, may be wrong. The two aren't that far apart.

Anthony Adolph

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