THIS HEARTBREAKING, HEARTWARMING, TRUE STORY FOLLOWING THE HISTORY OF A FAMILY IN WALES IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS EVER WRITTEN. 'I am a proud supporter of our National Health Service which has shown yet again what an important and valued institution it is in the UK. As the first NHS baby through to her work today, Aneira's story shows her dedication and passion for protecting this phenomenal service for future generations.' KEIR STARMER 'This book speaks from the heart about a passion to preserve our NHS - as powerful a symbol of goodness as we have. Nye's own experience and that of her family represents our deep need to fight for a society where all are equal in worth and value. And how the NHS stands fast as a symbol of equality, of fairness, and of compassion for all.' MICHAEL SHEEN 'Aneira has written a memoir which is a deeply personal, richly researched and incredibly timely tribute to Britain's commitment to provide free and equal healthcare to all.' - DAILY MAIL Book of the Week, 22 May 2020 'Moving tribute to the NHS.' - WI Life _____________________________________________________________ 'Edna,' says the doctor, coming to stand beside her bed. 'You need to wait. It's not long now. Don't push. Just hold on, Edna!' The birth of the National Health Service coincided with the birth of one little girl in South Wales: Aneira 'Nye' Thomas, the first baby delivered by the NHS. This is the touching story of Nye's family - their loves and losses - and the launch of a treasured public service that has touched the lives of every family in the nation.

This is the very first 'teach yourself' book on palaeography, covering all the skills that the genealogist needs to read any document that might be found at any date in English archives. Using a series of graded exercises in transcription, Teach Yourself Palaeography works backwards in time in easy stages from the modern handwriting of the nineteenth century to the court hands of the medieval period, focusing on records that are of particular interest to family and local historians. The book provides a unique, self-contained reference guide to palaeography, and to all the different letter forms, symbols and abbreviations that have ever been used in English records.

The recent past is so often neglected when people research their family history, yet it can be one of the most rewarding periods to explore, and so much fascinating evidence is available. The rush of events over the last century and the rapid changes that have taken place in every aspect of life have been dramatic, and the lives of family members of only a generation or two ago may already appear remote. That is why Karen Bali's informative and accessible guide to investigating your immediate ancestors is essential reading, and a handy reference for anyone who is trying to trace them or discover the background to their lives. In a sequence of concise, fact-filled chapters she looks back over the key events of the twentieth century and identifies the sources that can give researchers an insight into the personal stories of individuals who lived through it. She explains census and civil records, particularly those of the early twentieth century, and advises readers on the best way to get relevant information from directories and registers as well as wills and other personal documents.Chapters also cover newspapers - which often provide personal details and offer a vivid impression of the world of the time - professional and property records and records of migration and naturalization. This practical handbook is rounded off with sections on tracing living relatives and likely future developments in the field.

"I never missed my childhood home / until the tide stopped rolling in and / ochre sand no longer crunched between my toes ..." A little girl grows up to the sounds of the seaside in bustling Cleethorpes. There are family outings through the Lincolnshire Wolds in a tiny Austin 7, and ferry rides across the Humber. Family runs like a comforting thread throughout this 'little gem of a book', and lifelong friendships are forged in unexpected places ... A gentle and heartfelt memoir about the timeless call of the sea

This fascinating book contains a terrifying collection of true-life, spine-chilling tales from across Northumberland. Featuring stories of unexplained phenomena, apparitions and poltergeists, and including the tale of the Hexham Heads, the Pink Lady of Bamburgh Castle and the ghost of Hadrian's Wall, this book is guaranteed to make your blood run cold. Drawing on historical and contemporary sources and containing many tales which have never before been published, Haunted Northumberland will delight everyone interested in the paranormal.

The close-knit villages of the Dearne Valley were home to four generations of the Hollingworth family. Spanning Richard Benson's great-grandmother Winnie's ninety-two years in the valley, and drawing on years of historical research, interviews and anecdotes, The Valley lets us into generations of carousing and banter as the family's attempts to build a better and fairer world for themselves meet sometimes with triumph, sometimes with bitter defeat. Against a backdrop of underground explosions, strikes and pit closures, these are unflinching, deeply personal stories of battles between the sexes in a man's world sustained by strong women; of growing up, and the power of love and imagination to transform lives.

It is a rule that no Trevelyan ever sucks up either to the press, or the chiefs, or the right people. The world has given us money enough to enable us to do what we think is right. We thank it for that and ask no more of it, but to be allowed to serve it - G.M. Trevelyan. The Trevelyans are unique in British social and political history: a family which for several generations dedicated themselves to the service and chronicling of their country, from the radical, reforming civil servant Charles Edward Trevelyan to the historian G.M. Trevelyan. Often eccentric, priggish, high minded and utterly self-regarding, they have nonetheless left their mark on our past. This engaging history dispassionately explores the lives and achievements of this unique family and the part they played in shaping the history of Great Britain. From their inauspicious beginnings in a small dwelling in Cornwall to the present day, some Trevelyans have been famous and distinguished, others less so, but for a hundred years from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century family members from Lord Macaulay to G.M. Trevelyan contributed to both the writing and the making of history. This book is primarily the tale of the five men who flourished during this period - Charles Edward, George Otto, Charles Philips, George Macaulay and Humphry Trevelyan - and the clever and formidable women they married. Including many vivid portraits of the most influential members of this remarkable family, The Trevelyans casts light on the period of enormous social and cultural change in which they lived and examines why they chose not to simply exploit their position as landed gentry but instead to take their place at the centre of scholarship and politics.

Everybody knows about Charles Darwin, and many know about others in his family, from Erasmus Darwin and Tom Wedgwood, the first photographer, to composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and poet and radical John Cornford, the first Briton to be killed in the Spanish Civil War. But when Charles and Emma Darwin's great-great-granddaughter, another Emma Darwin, tried to root her new novel in that history, the conflict between her complex heritage, and her own identity as a writer, became a battle that nearly killed her. This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin takes the reader on a writer's journey through the Darwin-Wedgwood-Galton clan, as seen through the lens of Emma's struggle. Along the way, her wry, witty and honest memoir becomes a brave book about failure - and, above all, a book about writing and how stories are told. Richly illustrated with over 40 black and white images.

This fully revised second edition of Rachel Bellerby's best-selling guide is essential reading if you want to find out about your Yorkshire ancestors. As well as tracing when your ancestors were born, married and died, she shows you how can explore how they lived, worked and spent their leisure time. She introduces readers to the many sources that hold a wealth of information about Yorkshire's past, and describes the records you can find in archives and online which will bring your research to life. Whatever you would like to discover more about, from fairground travellers to Romany gypsies, from working deep underground in a mine to making a living from the North Sea, there is so much to learn. The many different archives that welcome family history researchers are explored here and explained. A new chapter covering the growing number of Yorkshire family history websites has been added along with a range of new illustrations. The contact details of the sources listed in the first edition of the book have been revised and new sources and relevant organizations have been added. Dozens of places, from tiny museum archives to large research centres, are open for your research, and a wealth of information is now accessible through the internet. Tracing your Yorkshire ancestors has never been more exciting.

The New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and Indie Bound Bestseller

'Those who like to insist that blood is always thicker than water should read Inheritance, and let their own hearts slowly and gently expand.'-- The Observer

'All my life I had known there was a secret. What I hadn't known: the secret was me.'

In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. Everything she had believed about her identity was a lie.

Shapiro's parents had died when she was in her twenties. With only a handful of figures on a webpage, Shapiro sets out to discover the truth about herself and her history.

Inheritance is a genetic detective story; a memoir that reads like a thriller. It is a book about secrets -secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.

The author is a journalist descendant of three generations of eminent lawyers, who made the surname famous-perhaps especially Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett, KC. She could get no further than the early 18th century so turned her attention to the distaff side with rewarding results. "A wealth of illustrations, photographs and family trees and a bibliography add interest to the lively and entertaining text." Family Tree Magazine

In this fascinating follow-up to the highly successful Dear Francesca, Mary Contini writes to her other daughter, Olivia, to tell the story of her great-grandparents, the humble Italian shepherds who emigrated to Edinburgh and then helped to transform Britain's food culture. Sharing some of the recipes that they brought over, the tomatoes, the garlic, the sausage, the wine, this is a mouthwatering memoir of family and food. It is also a brilliant evocation of life between the wars, a triumphant story of survival against all the odds, that captures the sights and smells of Italian life and culture, at home and abroad.