People wanting to uncover their family backstories will be able to do so for free this bank holiday weekend.

Family history website Ancestry is providing free access for the first time to its entire collection of over 27 billion historic online records from across the world between April 2 and 5.

It comes after a study by research site Opinium showed that Brits know on average only eight stories about their ancestors, with 57 per cent wanting to find out more about their family history.

“Uncovering family history stories from our past can be a great way to connect with loved ones and learn more about where we came from,” said Simon Pearce, Family History expert at Ancestry.

“Finding out what our ancestors once did for a living or the challenges they overcame in their lives can be inspiring and sometimes eye-opening.

“That’s why this Easter long weekend, for the first time ever we’re providing free access to all of our historical records in the UK and worldwide. It’s the perfect opportunity for Brits to find stories in our family trees that we can share and pass down for generations to come.’’

One student from Rickmansworth recently uncovered her family story using Ancestry after becoming fascinated by her grandparents and ancestors' lives.

Alisha Camm, 23, learnt about her ancestors’ seafaring adventures and discovered her great-great- great grandfather, Darius Camm (1826-1882), was a Captain Master within the Royal Navy.

Darius spent much of his time at sea and primarily moved around the south coast of Britain including Bridport, Dorset and Devon.

Through sources such as the England Census and various Crew Lists, Alisha was able to track Darius’ major life events, including his marriage at age 28, birth of his son and two daughters and his role and movement on the ships ‘Billow Crest’ in 1863, and ‘Island Belle’ in 1869.

Alisha said: “I never knew much about my family history, apart from the occasional story, but I was fascinated about finding out more, so decided to build out my family tree on Ancestry.

“Resources such as the Census records proved to be an amazing tool to help me track down my ancestors and discover more about their lives.”