Tracing Your Roman Catholic Ancestors is the ideal handbook for readers and researchers who are keen to find out about their Roman Catholic ancestors and for anyone who wants an introduction to Roman Catholic history in general. Stuart Raymond provides a brief historical account covering the Roman Catholics from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, then goes on to identify the available sources, explaining their strengths and weaknesses. His accessible and authoritative book will be a...

Parish records are essential sources for family and local historians, and Stuart Raymond's handbook is an invaluable guide to them. He explores and explains the fascinating and varied historical and personal information they contain. His is the first thoroughgoing survey of these resources to be published for over three decades. In a concise, easy-to-follow text he describes where these important records can be found and demonstrates how they can be used. Records relating to the poor laws,...

"Provides a wealth of information about . . . people who have gone through debt collectives, hospitals, bankruptcy, crime, homelessness—the list is huge." — UK HistorianMany people in the past—perhaps a majority—were poor. Tracing our ancestors amongst them involves consulting a wide range of sources. Stuart Raymond's handbook is the ideal guide to them.He examines the history of the poor and how they survived. Some were supported by charity. A few w...

We all have Nonconformist ancestors. In the mid-nineteenth century almost half of the English population were Nonconformists. And there were very few villages where there was not at least one Nonconformist chapel. Local and family historians need to be aware of the diversity of Nonconformity, and of the many sources which will enable them to trace the activities of Nonconformist forebears.Stuart Raymond's handbook provides an overview of those sources. He identifies the numerous websites, ...

A detailed handbook to the English and Welsh Quarter Sessions records, their background, and how they can be used by genealogists and historians.For over 500 years, between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Justices of the Peace were the embodiment of government for most of our ancestors. The records they and other county officials kept are invaluable sources for local and family historians, and Stuart Raymond's handbook is the first in-depth guide to the...

How has the place we live in changed, developed, and grown over the centuries? That is the basic question local historians seek to answer. The answer is to be found in the sources of information that previous generations have left us. The records of parish, county, and diocesan administration, of the courts, of the national government, and of private estates, all have something to tell us about the history of the locality we are interested in. So do old newspapers and other publications. A...

In his latest handbook on the records of the major Christian religions, Stuart Raymond focuses on the Church of England. He identifies the available sources, comments on their strengths and weaknesses and explains how to make the best use of them. The history of the Church of England is covered, from the Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century until the present day. Anyone who has a family connection with the Church of England or a special interest in the local history of the church will ...

"Almost every book on English research highlights the need to examine the wills of our ancestors. . . . [this book] gives us an easy to read detailed guide." — FGS ForumWhat are wills, and how can they be used for family and local history research? How can you interpret them and get as much insight from them as possible? Wills are key documents for exploring the lives of our ancestors, their circumstances, and the world they knew. This practical handbook is...

A simple guide to tracing British family tree before the onset of civil registration in 1837 and back to the Middle Ages.The trail that an ancestor leaves through the Victorian period and the twentieth century is relatively easy to follow—the records are plentiful, accessible, and commonly used. But how do you go back further, into the centuries before the central registration of births, marriages, and deaths was introduced in 1837, before the first detailed census ...

The Georgian period 1714 to 1837 was a key stage in our modern history so some understanding of it is essential for family historians who want to push their research back into the eighteenth century and beyond, and John Wintrip's handbook is an invaluable introduction to it. In a sequence of concise, insightful chapters he focuses on those aspects of the period that are particularly relevant to genealogical research and he presents a detailed guide to the variety of sources that readers ca...

Birth, marriage and death records are an essential resource for family historians, and this handbook is an authoritative introduction to them. It explains the original motives for registering these milestones in individual lives, describes how these record-keeping systems evolved, and shows how they can be explored and interpreted. Authors David Annal and Audrey Collins guide researchers through the difficulties they may encounter in understanding the documentation. They recount the histor...

Family historian Celia Heritage shares an unorthodox approach to researching genealogy in Tracing Your Ancestors Through Death Records.Of all family history sources, death records are probably the least used by researchers. They are, however, frequently the most revealing of records, giving a far greater insight into our ancestors' lives and personalities than those records created during their lifetime.Celia Heritage leads readers through the variou...