diff --git a/python/CHANGELOG.rst b/python/CHANGELOG.rst
index 3a851c3e87..94ad670759 100644
--- a/python/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/python/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
 --------------------
-[0.5.X] - 2023-XX-XX
+[0.5.6] - 2023-XX-XX
 --------------------
 
 **Features**
 
 - Add ``TreeSequence.impute_unknown_mutations_time`` method to return an array of mutation times based on the times of associated nodes (:user:`duncanMR`, :pr:`2760`, :issue:`2758`)
 
+- Add ``asdict`` to all dataclasses. These are returned when you access a row or
+  other tree sequence object. (:user:`benjeffery`, :pr:`2759`, :issue:`2719`)
+
 --------------------
 [0.5.5] - 2023-05-17
 --------------------
diff --git a/python/tests/test_tables.py b/python/tests/test_tables.py
index b6d207e2e0..265fee48b2 100644
--- a/python/tests/test_tables.py
+++ b/python/tests/test_tables.py
@@ -140,6 +140,14 @@ def table_5row(self, test_rows):
             table_5row.add_row(**row)
         return table_5row
 
+    def test_asdict(self, table, test_rows):
+        for table_row, test_row in zip(table, test_rows):
+            for k, v in table_row.asdict().items():
+                if isinstance(v, np.ndarray):
+                    assert np.array_equal(v, test_row[k])
+                else:
+                    assert v == test_row[k]
+
     def test_max_rows_increment(self):
         for bad_value in [-1, -(2**10)]:
             with pytest.raises(ValueError):
diff --git a/python/tskit/util.py b/python/tskit/util.py
index 72f08499d6..28e9876b5a 100644
--- a/python/tskit/util.py
+++ b/python/tskit/util.py
@@ -47,6 +47,13 @@ def replace(self, **kwargs):
         """
         return dataclasses.replace(self, **kwargs)
 
+    def asdict(self, **kwargs):
+        """
+        Return a new dict which maps field names to their corresponding values
+        in this dataclass.
+        """
+        return dataclasses.asdict(self, **kwargs)
+
 
 def canonical_json(obj):
     """