DELVING into the murky past of your ancestors is the only true way of tracing your family's past, according to one of the authors at this year's Swindon Festival of Literature.

Historian Mary Turner, a specialist in women's history, gave an informative talk on family history and what it really means.

And the author recalled how searches on her own family revealed a colourful past.

She said: "A lot of people think tracing your lineage should only be done from your parental side, and if you're writing about it, then only those with your surname should be written about.

"I think that's quite unfair as there are a lot of people responsible for your existence, and there is no need to ignore them.

"Finding an illegitimate family member used to be a cause for great shame and people didn't want to know about it. Through looking to my own family's history I learnt that an ancestor of mine was a fugitive.

"These are things people would've kept under wraps years ago, now, the blacker the sheep, the better it is for people because there's a sense of notoriety about it."

Ms Turner also believes BBC television programme Who Do You Think You Are is largely responsible for getting people interested in their ancestry.

"Finding about their ancestors I think, gives people a sense of belonging," she said.

"It is something that people of a certain age come into after a point in their lives. It has certainly got people talking."

After her talk, Ms Turner held a workshop on how to start drawing up a family tree.

She said: "When people want to start tracing their roots, the biggest thing I think that stops them is the work involved.

"I think there's this huge question of where to start looking and also what the best way is to go about things. The workshop I did gave them an idea about that.

"It was a complete beginners' guide on how to start tracing your family history. I think doing something like this is great for keeping your mind active and getting you out there.

"Tracing one's roots is what older people tend to get into, sometimes after a parent's death, that's how I got involved.

"My dad was dying and I learnt that he had been trying to trace our family's history back to our Irish ancestors, and because I was a historian I promised him I would do it.

"It's a wonderful way of doing something fun and finding out something so personal and fascinating at the same time."

If you want to trace your roots and find out about your family's history visit www.startingfamilyhistory.co.uk.