The first and second Presbyterian congregations of Belfast, in Rosemary Street, owned a collection of palls, cloaks and hats which were hired out for funerals. They were used by most of the better-off inhabitants of Belfast, regardless of religion, and many of the gentry, clergy and substantial farmers in the surrounding countryside. This register, which covers the years 1712 to 1736, is a record of the hiring of this funeral gear for about 2,000 funerals which took place in the town, and as far afield as Counties Londonderry and Tyrone. In this period both the population and trade of Belfast were growing rapidly and the town was well established as the social and economic centre of Ulster. Much of the original register has been printed here together with an index of names, making it immediately accessible for research. To this has been added a series of biographical notes on many of the merchants, gentry, clergy and tradesmen whose funerals are noted. The register is the single most important genealogical source for Belfast in this period but this book will fascinate anyone with an interest in local history. Finally, the transcript retains the phonetic spelling of the original enabling, us to hear the authentic voice of eighteenth century Belfast.

Includes details on how to create your own direct-ancestry chart.

"Includes master forms for making unlimited photocopies"--Cover.

Part encyclopedia, part dictionary, part almanac - Jonathan Scott's Dictionary of Family History doesn't claim to be exhaustive, but it is practical, easy to use, entertaining and genuinely informative. It is the kind of book you can dip into or use as a starting point for deeper study, and it is the essential companion for experienced family historians and for anyone who is approaching this fascinating subject for the first time. Thousands of A to Z entries are full of intriguing facts. There are definitions, timelines and terminologies, details of archives and websites as well as advice on research methods and explanations of genealogical peculiarities and puzzles that would test the knowledge of even veteran researchers. Longer entries explaining the mechanics of the first census and other major sources and records rub shoulders with simple one-line definitions of obscure terms, useful addresses and signposts to little-known but rewarding corners of family, local and social history. This concise, clear and wide-ranging compendium of helpful, sometimes surprising information is a valuable reference tool for everyone in the field.

Kentuckians in Ohio and Indiana is designed specifically to assist genealogists seeking ancestors from Ohio or Indiana who were originally from Kentucky. Deliberately passing over the conventional record sources, it draws its information from published county histories and county atlases, works containing the type of information likely to be of use to the genealogist. Arranged in tabular format under county of origin, entries include some or all of the following information: the name of the Kentucky migrant, his birth date, the names of his parents and their dates and places of birth (if known), and the date of migration. The name index at the back of the book contains references to more than 10,000 persons.

'Absolutely extraordinary ... Findlay reveals a vast, hidden European story that few nations have ever been brave enough to confront' Keith Lowe' 'Beautifully written, poignant and acutely perceptive' Sinclair McKay 'Moving and powerful' Julia Samuel ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... In My Grandfather's Shadow is an unflinching, thought-provoking fusion of memoir and history, and an exploration of the hidden scars left across generations by the conflict and horrors of the Second World War. In a quest to discover the truth about her German grandfather, first a proud Wehrmacht General serving on the Eastern front, then a broken POW on trial for Nazi war crimes, Angela Findlay travels across Europe and Russia to uncover the untold story of millions of Germans long buried not only in guilt and shame but also trauma. Carefully breaking the silence surrounding so many of World War Two's perpetrators, she challenges widespread binary narratives and offers a way forward that allows the intergenerational wounds to heal and us all to grasp the urgent lessons of the darkest episode in modern history. Brave, profoundly insightful and moving, In My Grandfather's Shadow is a courageous look at a taboo subject and raises important questions about how and why we should remember the past.

This hands-on guide for neophyte genealogists explains everything you need to know to trace your family tree--including how to begin, where to go for help, and how to organize your findings.

Anyone who wants to find out about the history of their house - of their home - needs to read this compact, practical handbook. Whether you live in a manor house or on a planned estate, in a labourer's cottage, a tied house, a Victorian terrace, a twentieth-century council house or a converted warehouse - this is the book for you. In a series of concise, information-filled chapters, Gill Blanchard shows you how to trace the history of your house or flat, how to gain an insight into the lives of the people who lived in it before you, and how to fit it into the wider history of your neighbourhood. A wealth of historical evidence is available in libraries, archives and record offices, in books and online, and this is the ideal introduction to it. Gill Blanchard explores these resources in depth, explains their significance and directs the researcher to the most relevant, and revealing, aspects of them. She makes the research process understandable, accessible and fun, and in the process she demystifies the sometimes obscure language and layout of the documents that researchers will come up against.

This concise guide to naval history and naval records is essential reading and reference for anyone researching the fascinating story of Britain's Navy and the men and women who served in it. Whether you are interested in the career of an individual seaman, finding out about a medal winner or just want to know more about a particular ship, campaign or operation, this book will point you in the right direction.Simon Fowler assumes the reader has little prior knowledge of the Navy and its history. His book shows you how to trace an officer, petty officer or rating from the seventeenth century up to the 1960s using records at the National Archives and elsewhere.The book also covers the specialist and auxiliary services associated with the Navy - among them the Royal Marines, the Fleet Air Arm, the naval dockyards, the WRNS and the Fleet Auxiliary. In each section he explains which records survive, where they can be found and how they can be used for research. He also recommends resources available online as well as books and memoirs.His handbook is a valuable research tool for anyone who is keen to find out about the career of an ancestor who served in the Royal Navy or was connected with it. Simon Fowler is a leading authority on military and family history and a prolific writer on these subjects. He once edited the National Archives' family history magazine Ancestors. For nearly 20 years he was an archivist at the Public Record Office (now The National Archives). As well as publishing many articles in magazines and journals, he has written several well-known books on military and family history, including: Tracing Your Army Ancestors, A Guide to Military Historyon the Internet and Tracing Your Ancestors. He is also a professional researcher - find out more at www.history-man.co.uk.

**WINNER OF BEST SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BOOK AT THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2022** 'Hard-hitting and hilarious' - James Acaster 'Funny, moving and compelling' - Mike Costello A heart-warming, hilarious true story about fighting and family, based on the acclaimed stage show. For fans of books by Dave Gorman, James Acaster and Danny Wallace, along with boxing tales from the likes of Tyson Fury and Ricky Hatton. THE CHAMP Terry Downes - the charismatic cockney known as 'The Paddington Express' - was a world champion boxer, US Marine, gangsters' favourite and later a film star and businessman. THE CHUMP James McNicholas' PE teacher once told him he was so unfit he'd be dead by the time he was 23. James has spent his life pursuing a career in acting and comedy. In reality, that has meant stints as a car park caretaker and river cruise salesperson. After Terry's death, James finds himself in reflective mood, comparing his story of underachievement against that of his world champ grandad. What follows is an increasingly colourful journey through post-war Paddington to the blood-soaked canvases of Baltimore and Shoreditch, via Mayfair parties with the Krays. Along the way, James begins to dig into his own story, confronting the dysfunctional elements of his childhood, describing his often hilarious efforts to make it in the world of showbiz, and attempting to recreate Terry's trials by enlisting in a brutal military boot camp and boxing gym. When James is diagnosed with a frightening and mysterious neurological condition, the two tales of the fighter and the writer suddenly collide, and what began as a nostalgic journey takes on a far more important significance altogether. 'A wonderfully funny and heartfelt story of what family and lineage means. Even made me like boxing' - Josh Widdicombe 'An extraordinary family history, told with warmth and wit. Two remarkable underdog stories - come for the cockney scrapper who conquered the world, stay for the grandson and the fight of his life' - Greg Jenner 'If you like comedy and boxing this is the perfect book. James McNicholas is a very funny man and a brilliant writer' - Rob Beckett

'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

Genealogically and historically, Kent is an important maritime county which has played a prime defensive role in English history. It is large and diverse and replete with great houses, castles and other family homes, many with their own archives. It is also a fascinating area of research for family and local historians, and David Wright's handbook is the perfect guide to it. For thirty-five years he has been working with the various Kent archives, and his extensive experience means he is uniquely well placed to introduce them to other researchers and show how they can be used. He summarizes the many different classes of Kent records, both national and local. For the first time he draws together the best of modern indexing and cataloguing along with other long-established sources to produce a balanced and up-to-date overview of Kentish genealogical sources - where to find them, their contents and utility to researchers. Tracing Your Kent Ancestors is essential reading and reference for newcomers to family history, and it will be a mine of practical information for researchers who have already started to work in the field.

Shortlisted for the James Tait Black biography prize 2019 'A moving memoir.' Sunday Times 'Gripped me from the first page.' Clover Stroud, author of My Wild and Sleepless Nights 'A gripping read... a riveting piece of writing.' Radio 4 __________ What do our possessions say about us? Why do we project such meaning onto them? What becomes of the things we leave behind? Only after her mother's death does Susannah Walker discover how much of a hoarder she had become. Over the following months, Susannah has to sort through a dilapidated house filled to the brim with rubbish and treasures - filling bag after bag with possessions. But what she's really in search of is a woman she'd never really known or understood in life. This is her last chance to piece together her mother's story and make sense of their troubled relationship. What emerges from the mess of scattered papers, discarded photographs and an extraordinary amount of stuff is the history of a sad and fractured family, haunted by dead children, divorce and alcohol. The Life of Stuff is a deeply personal exploration of mourning and the shoring up of possessions against the losses and griefs of life, which also raises universal questions about what makes us the people we are. __________ 'Compelling and moving.' Ruth Hogan 'An excellent memoir.' Cathy Rentzenbrink

Tracing Your British Indian Ancestors gives a fascinating insight into the history of the subcontinent under British rule and into the lives the British led there. It also introduces the reader to the range of historical records that can be consulted in order to throw light on the experience of individuals who were connected to India over the centuries of British involvement in the country. Emma Jolly looks at every aspect of British Indian history and at all the relevant resources. She explains the information held in the British Library India Office Records and The National Archives. She also covers the records of the armed forces, the civil service and the railways, as well as religious and probate records, and other sources available for researchers. At the same time, she provides a concise and vivid social history of the British in India: from the early days of the East India Company, through the Mutiny and the imposition of direct British rule in the mid-nineteenth century, to the independence movement and the last days of the Raj.Her book will help family historians put their research into an historical perspective, giving them a better understanding of the part their ancestors played in India in the past.

The companion how-to guide to the hit TV series-with advice for anyone starting their own genealogical search.
In the groundbreaking NBC series "Who Do You Think You Are?" seven celebrities-Sarah Jessica Parker, Emmitt Smith, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Broderick, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon, and Spike Lee-went on an emotional journey to trace their family history and discover who they really are, and millions of viewers caught the genealogy bug. With the official companion guide, anyone can learn how to chart their family's unique path. Featuring step-by-step instructions from Megan Smolenyak2, one of America's top genealogical researchers, this book offers everything readers need to know to start the journey into their past, from digging through old photos, to finding the best online resources.

In 1993, aged twenty, Carmel Mc Mahon left Ireland for New York, carrying $500, two suitcases and a ton of unseen baggage. It took years, and a bitter struggle with alcohol addiction, to unpick the intricate traumas of her past and present. Candid yet lyrical, In Ordinary Time mines the ways that trauma reverberates through time and through individual lives, drawing connections to the events and rhythms of Ireland's long Celtic, early Christian and Catholic history. From tragically lost siblings to the broader social scars of the Famine and the Magdalene Laundries, Mc Mahon sketches the evolution of a consciousness from her conservative 1970s upbringing to 1990s New York, and back to the much-changed Ireland of today.

In SEVEN WINTERS Elizabeth Brown recalls with endearing candour her family and her Dublin childhood as seen through the eyesof a child who could not read till she was seven and who fed her imagination only on sights and sounds. BOWEN'S COURT describes the history of one Anglo-Irish family in County Cork from the Cromwellian settlement until 1959, when the author, the last of the Bowens, was forced to sell the house she loved. With the mastery skill that is also the hallmark of her novels she reviews ten generations of Bowens as representative of a class - the Protestant Irish gentry. Their lives were ones of fanatical commitment to property, lawsuits, formidable matriachs, violent conflicts, hunting, drinking and breeding, self- destructive and self-sustaining fantasies...

A step-by-step guide to researching your family tree. Interested in doing your family tree but don't know how? Genealogy for Beginners covers everything you need to get started researching your family history or continue a project you've already started. You'll get practical suggestions from an experienced genealogist, and detailed, step-by-step instructions for carrying out a quality family history research. Topics covered include: Getting started with a family history research project Discovering which subscription services are worth the price Using Ancestry.com effectively Finding obituaries Interviewing family members Preserving and organizing paper and digital files, plus photographs Getting the most out of DNA testing for genealogy Conducting cemetery research Finding and interpreting non-US records Doing cultural and ethnic heritage research Finding professional researchers and translators Keeping up with the genealogy news With this book in hand, you're sure to succeed.

'A really important book' RAYNOR WINN From relics of Georgian empire-building and slave-trading, through Victorian London's barged-out refuse to 1980s fly-tipping and the pervasiveness of present-day plastics, Rag and Bone traces the story of our rubbish, and, through it, our history of consumption. In a series of beachcombing and mudlarking walks - beginning in the Thames in central London, then out to the Kentish estuary and eventually the sea around Cornwall - Lisa Woollett also tells the story of her family, a number of whom made their living from London's waste, and who made a similar journey downriver from the centre of the city to the sea. A beautifully written but urgent mixture of social history, family memoir and nature writing, Rag and Bone is a book about what we can learn from what we've thrown away - and a call to think more about what we leave behind.

Shortlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize 'Part detective story, part Dickensian saga, part labour history. A thrilling and unnerving read' Observer 'Mesmeric and deeply moving' Daily Telegraph 'Remarkable, haunting, full of wisdom' The Times Family history is a massive phenomenon of our times but what are we after when we go in search of our ancestors? Beginning with her grandparents, Alison Light moves between the present and the past, in an extraordinary series of journeys over two centuries, across Britain and beyond. Epic in scope and deep in feeling, Common People is a family history but also a new kind of public history, following the lives of the migrants who travelled the country looking for work. Original and eloquent, it is a timely rethinking of who the English were - but ultimately it reflects on history itself, and on our constant need to know who went before us and what we owe them.