The Second World War was the defining conflict of the twentieth century and it is one of the most popular and fascinating areas for historical research - and for family historians. More records than ever are available to researchers whose relatives served during the war. And this new book by Phil Tomaselli is the perfect guide to how to locate and understand these sources - and get the most out of them. He explains how, and from where, service records can be obtained, using real examples showing what they look like and how to interpret them. He also examines records of the military units relatives might have served in so their careers can be followed in graphic detail. The three armed services are covered, along with the merchant navy, the Home Guard, civilian services, prisoners of war, gallantry and campaign medals, casualties, women's services and obscure wartime organizations. Also included are a glossary of service acronyms, information on useful websites, an introduction to the National Archives and details of other useful sources.

'A triumphant family memoir' Hallie Rubenhold 'Powerfully told...an impressive work' The Times 'Gives a voice to the voiceless' Australian Book Review In this remarkable book, Carmen Callil discovers the story of her British ancestors, beginning with her great-great grandmother Sary Lacey, born in 1808, an impoverished stocking frame worker. Through detailed research, we follow Sary from slum to tenement and from pregnancy to pregnancy. We also meet George Conquest, a canal worker and the father of one of Sary's children. George was sentenced - for a minor theft - to seven years' transportation to Australia, where he faced the extraordinary brutality of convict life. But for George, as for so many disenfranchised British people like him, Australia turned out to be his Happy Day. He survived, prospered and eventually returned to England, where he met Sary again, after nearly thirty years. He brought her out to Australia, and they were never parted again. A miracle of research and fuelled by righteous anger, Oh Happy Day is a story of Empire, migration and the inequality and injustice of nineteenth-century England. 'A remarkable tale...drawing chilling parallels to the inequalities of our times' Observer

Ranulph Fiennes tells the story of his unconventional, exceptional family, and reveals the ingredients for the man described by the Guinness Book of Records as 'the world's greatest living explorer'. Discover Sir Ranulph Twistelton-Wykham-Fiennes's personal expedition to trace his extraordinary family through history. From Charlemagne - himself a direct ancestor of the author - to the count who very nearly persuaded William the Conqueror to retreat at Hastings, many members of this unique clan have lived close to the nerve centre of the ruler of their day. They number in their ranks a murderer, a wife poisoner, a poacher, England's greatest female traveller of the 17th century, and an extortionist Lord High Treasurer, teen cousins who eloped, a noble lord hanged for manslaughter, another hanged for adultery with the King's wife, and many who, as admirals or major-generals, won famous battles. The Fiennes' behind Cromwell provided the castle in which the Parliamentarians made their first secret moves, the same building in which twenty-one successive generations of the family have lived for 600 unbroken years . . . And that is just a taster. A whirlwind romp through the annals of time, peopled with the good, the bad and downright mad among the Fiennes clan. - Sunday Telegraph

A fascinating family memoir from Joseph O'Neill, author of the Man Booker Prize longlisted and Richard & Judy pick, 'Netherland'. Joseph O'Neill's grandfathers - one Irish, one Turkish - were both imprisoned during the Second World War. The Irish grandfather, a handsome rogue from a family of small farmers, was an active member of the IRA and was interned with hundreds of his comrades. O'Neill's other grandfather, a hotelier from a tiny and threatened Turkish Christian minority, was imprisoned by the British in Palestine, on suspicion of being a spy. At the age of thirty, Joseph O'Neill set out to uncover his grandfather's stories, what emerges is a narrative of two families and two charismatic but flawed men - it is a story of murder, espionage, paranoia and fear, of memories of violence and of fierce commitments to political causes.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1877 Edition.

A reflection, in chapters, on the lives of members of the author's family, their friends and neighbours who lived in Orleans and Caledonia counties between the end of the eighteenth and the middle of the twentieth centuries. Hard-working, God-fearing, and often clever, these were literate, respectable, and fairly well-off folks. They were, also, all too human - and certainly not always 'nice' or admirable'. The history that spills out from this archive - of documents, letters and postcards, diaries, photographs and oral history - encompasses family tales, curses and scandals; the working lives of farmers, store-keepers, merchants and railway men; education, teenage life, and courtship; building homes and becoming consumers; serving in the militia and in war; early tourism, and local entertainments; with a discursion on Vermont family names along the way. It is a fascinating story, generously illustrated with reproductions of documents and photographs.

This book is a transcription of the 1930 population census of Guam. It begins with an overview and some observations of the census in general. Each census page contained is simply a transcription from what was handwritten and into a type written format. It serves as a tool to make it a little easier for fellow genealogy researchers during the course of their work.

James Edward Aiguier was born in New York City. He was educated there and later in Philadelphia at the Evans Institute of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. He would become a leading figure in his profession. This is the story of his paternal ancestry descending from four immigrants: Joshua Carter and Zechariah Field, both English Puritans, and Jean Francois Arnoux and Jean Baptiste Aiguier, both from the south of France. They and their offspring lived in the heart of the American story from 1630 to 1977 in the midst of important moments in its history. Carter and Field's great grandson John Carter at the age of nine was kidnapped by the French-led expedition to raid Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1704. He was taken to Montreal, educated by an order of monks, and became a citizen in New France with a new name, Jean Chartier. Another immigrant, Jean Francois Arnoux, a surgeon on a French navy frigate, sailed with Admiral de Grasse to Yorktown in 1781 to assist the United States defeat the British in that famous battle. Injured in the battle, Arnoux remained in the new country, made his way to Montreal, Canada, to marry the granddaughter of Jean Chartier. Their daughter Mary Cecile would marry French immigrant Jean Baptiste Aiguier in 1816 and raise a family in New York City. Their great grandson was James Edward Aiguier born in 1883, died in 1977.

Nell Hannah was born in rural Aberdeenshire in 1920 and grew in Turriff, where her family scraped a meagre living as domestic and farm servants. After the outbreak of World War Two, Nell and her sister Margaret moved with their mother to Perthshire, where all three got jobs at the Stanley Mill. At the time, it was running full tilt to produce webbing for military requirements and despite long hours and austere conditions; Nell recalls her years as a mill lassie as being memorably happy. In conversation with folklorist Margaret Bennett and long-time friend and fellow-singer, Doris Rougvie, Nell shares a life-time of reminiscences and songs. In recalling the hey-day of an industry that shut down in the 1980s, she constructs an oral history of life in war-time Perthshire. Then, following life's paths with its twists and turns, Nell tells how, at the age of sixty-nine, she discovered her gift of singing and entertaining. Having made her first recording, a cassette, at the age of seventy, and her fifth, a CD, at the age of 90, Nell can hold an audience in the palm of her hand.

Who are we, and where do we come from? The fundamental drive to answer these questions is at the heart of Finding Your Roots, the companion book to the PBS documentary series seen by 30 million people. As Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. shows us, the tools of cutting-edge genomics and deep genealogical research now allow us to learn more about our roots, looking further back in time than ever before. Gates's investigations take on the personal and genealogical histories of more than twenty luminaries, including United States Congressman John Lewis, actor Robert Downey Jr., CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, President of the ""Becoming American Institute"" Linda Chavez, and comedian Margaret Cho. Interwoven with their moving stories of immigration, assimilation, strife, and success, Gates provides practical information for amateur genealogists just beginning archival research on their own families' roots, and he details the advances in genetic research now available to the public. The result is an illuminating exploration of who we are, how we lost track of our roots, and how we can find them again.