Genealogy consumer magazines (UK): Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine + Family Tree — the free editorial doors

Written 29 Oct 2026 (skills harvest). Distinct from history-magazine-journal-articles-historian-history-today.md (History Today / The Historian, academic-leaning) and family-history-society-journals-forums.md (society journals). These are the two big UK hobby newsstand titles; their readers are exactly the people who buy a family/farm-history e-book.

The doors (all free; no advertising)

Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine (Our Media Ltd, Bristol; licensed BBC title; "Britain's bestselling family history magazine" by its own description; 13 issues a year; ~74k Facebook followers per the page snippet, not checked). Contact page (read 29 Oct 2026) lists: - General editorial: [address kept in the project workspace] - Letters to the editor: Sarah Williams, [address kept in the project workspace] - Reader Q&A ("brick walls"): [address kept in the project workspace] — "we get far more questions sent to us than we can feature"; only those they intend to publish are answered. - "Real stories" section (web + print): readers' own discoveries told with family photos, e.g. a reader sharing her parents' photographs. - Trending web feature "What are the most common Welsh surnames?" (50 surnames, history of patronymics) — Williams is one of them; a Welsh-surname hook the editors already run. - The TV series is a separate company (Wall to Wall); never pitch the magazine about being on the show. Family Tree (UK, Warners Group; monthly, print + digital; contact page read 29 Oct): Publisher Matt Hill [number kept in the project workspace] "working alongside the editorial team"; advertising is a different contact (Jamie Booth) — do not use it, it is paid. Its US namesake (familytreemagazine.com, [address kept in the project workspace], wants clips) is a different magazine. Also: Discover Your Ancestors (TheGenealogist's magazine) carries "case studies, book reviews, research advice" and invites readers' stories (site 403s to plain fetches; editor address not found this run).

What works (practitioner rules, from the doors themselves)

  1. Each door has a format: a letter is short (≈150-250 words) and reacts to something the magazine printed; a Q&A is a genuine brick wall question; a Real story is a reader's discovery with pictures; a book review needs a copy sent to the editor. Pitch one door per idea, never the same story to all three addresses.
  2. Lead with the record, not the product: "an 1853 administration bond shows a Llandough farmer died intestate and his widow took the farm's debts" is a magazine story; "buy our e-book" is an advert and goes to the ad team.
  3. Pictures decide Real stories: send 2-3 high-res images you own or that are public domain/OGL, with credit lines.
  4. Expect silence; a reply is the yes. Track in HubSpot with a 6-week follow-up, one chase max.
  5. Lead times: monthly titles plan 2-3 months ahead. Pitch now (Nov) for Feb-Mar 2027 issues; St David's Day (1 Mar) is the natural Welsh-surname peg.

How we apply it to Cedwyn

All of this is outward (press/media) = the project lead's GO first; write HubSpot drafts only, never send. - Draft A (Q&A, lowest risk, useful to the research too): the open question from the GHF cycle — John Williams Sr's birth year (recorded c.1843 vs 1881 census age 53 = c.1827/28) and whether the 1853 intestate John Williams of Llandough is his father. Real brick wall, Welsh-surname angle, no product mention. Signed as the project lead decides (never use his name in public text without his GO; the sign-off is his). - Draft B (Real story / letter tied to the Welsh-surnames feature): "Williams the farmer of Great House, Llandough: four generations from the 1841 tithe to 1908" with the probate image and tithe map detail; one line at the end naming the free Cedwyn evidence page (no prices). Check editorial rules: banned words, no accusations, nothing about family holdings or current addresses, no case argument in a hobby magazine. - Draft C (book review): only once an e-book has a stable print or PDF edition and the project lead approves a review copy to WDYTYAeditorial@. - Measurement: tag the evidence-page link in the pitch with utm_source=wdytya / utm_source=familytree; log replies and any print appearance in the Sunday report. Kill rule: 2 drafts sent with no reply in 12 weeks -> stop and move effort to society journals.

Sources

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