'Brick walls' occur everywhere and all the time in genealogy research, but with this book you can take your British Isles family tree back further. Solving Genealogy Problems will: - Help you find new records, including unusual ones genealogists often don't know about; and make the best use of them when you do find them. - Suggest new ideas for looking at old problems. - Give additional ideas on using the census - then more ideas on using census substitutes when the census doesn't have the answers. - Suggest ways of finding elusive births, marriages and deaths - and then of making progress anyway, even when you absolutely cannot find them. This book covers all periods of British Isles genealogy. The new frontiers of genealogy are considered for the hope they give on even the most intractable research block, and the possibility they allow of building even the most difficult of family trees. Contents: 1. RECOGNISING BRICK WALLS; 2. UNDERSTANDING BIRTHS, MARRIAGES AND DEATHS; 3. FINDING BMD BIRTHS; 4. FINDING BMD MARRIAGES; 5. FINDING BMD DEATHS; 6. CENSUS SOLUTIONS; 7. UNDERSTANDING PARISH REGISTERS; 8. FINDING PARISH REGISTER CHRISTENINGS; 9. FINDING PARISH REGISTERS MARRIAGES; 10. FINDING PARISH REGISTER BURIALS AND MEMORIAL INSCRIPTIONS; 11. USING NEWSPAPERS AS AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE; 12. GETTING MORE FROM WILLS AND ADMINISTRATIONS; 13. DIRECTORIES AS A CENSUS SUBSTITUTE; 14. ELECTORAL ROLL AS AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE; 15. OTHER ALTERNATIVE SOURCES; 16. YET MORE SOURCES: THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACTS AND THE GENEALOGIST; 17. PUBLISHING YOUR FAMILY TREE; 18. ORAL HISTORY; 19. LOCAL HISTORY; 20. DESCRIPTIONS OF AN ANCESTOR'S HOME; 21. CLUSTER GENEALOGY AND COMMUNITIES; 22. MILITARY RECORDS; 23. OCCUPATIONAL RECORDS; 24. IRELAND: PROBLEMS AND INSPIRATION; 25. INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGY; 26. PHOTOGRAPHS; 27. EARLY GENEALOGY; 28. GENETICS AND GENEALOGY; 29. HERITAGE; 30. COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS FOR RESEARCH; 31. THE GENEALOGY INDUSTRY; APPENDIX: THE TOP 10 BRICK WALL TIPS; INDEX.

Genealogist Keith Gregson takes the reader on a whistle-stop tour of quirky family stories and strange ancestors rooted out by amateur and professional family historians. Each lively entry tells the story behind each discovery and then offers a brief insight into how the researcher found and then followed up their leads, revealing a range of chance encounters and the detective qualities required of a family historian. For example, one researcher discovered that his great-great-grandfather, as a child, was carried across the main street of West Hartlepool on the back of the famous tightrope walker Blondin. The Victorian newspaper report said that the rope had been tied between two chimney pots. Research into the author's own family revealed that one of his nineteenth-century ancestors lost his leg in a Midlands coal-mining accident, and that the amputated leg was buried in the local cemetery - to be joined by the rest of him on his final demise. A Viking in the Family is full of similar unexpected discoveries in the branches of family trees.

This Book Is In Italian. Due to the very old age and scarcity of this book, many of the pages may be hard to read due to the blurring of the original text.

The origins of this book date from the 1990s when the author began to research the history of his own country house in the Kent Downs at Trimworth, near Canterbury. These early investigations led him to see how Trimworth could be used as a case study in a voyage of discovery which others could also enjoy. The book will be most relevant to owners of country houses, providing a methodology for the less experienced to trace an exciting pathway of inquiry. It is based on an exploration of a wide range of maps and documentary sources available from local, regional and national archive centres. This fully illustrated guide encourages a systematic process of research into the fascinating and topical subject of house history and makes frequent reference to online sources.

The Cornish have for a long time long considered themselves a race apart from the English and their origins are indeed more related to those of the Welsh, Scottish and Breton peoples than to most others east of the River Tamar. Almost every town and village in Cornwall has been used as a surname, and the traditional Cornish trades of fishing and mining have also provided inspiration for family names. Features of the landscape such as hills and rivers have had a huge effect, with many of these containing elements of some names which can be tracked back to the old Celtic language, for example the prefixes Pen (headland) and Pol (pool). A lot of names are tied to a particular area of Cornwall: Rodda and Bottrell are seldom found east of Penzance, whilst names like Odgers, Opie and Wearne are most common in mid-Cornwall around the mining areas of Redruth and Gwennap. Surnames can reveal a lot about family history, but their origins can be difficult to trace. This handy lexicon, drawn together from an exhaustive research, serves as an ideal starting point for tracing ancestry. Packed with information about notable families and migration, this is also an ideal book for anyone interested in the story of Cornish people.

Winner of the Colorado Author's League Award for Creative Nonfiction A 2010 Colorado Book Awards Finalist A FEAST Ezine Best of 2009 (Nonfiction) Power in the Blood: A Family Narrative traces Linda Tate's journey to rediscover the Cherokee-Appalachian branch of her family and provides an unflinching examination of the poverty, discrimination, and family violence that marked their lives. In her search for the truth of her own past, Tate scoured archives, libraries, and courthouses throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Illinois, and Missouri, visited numerous cemeteries, and combed through census records, marriage records, court cases, local histories, old maps, and photographs. As she began to locate distant relatives - fifth, sixth, seventh cousins, all descended from her great-greatgrandmother Louisiana - they gathered in kitchens and living rooms, held family reunions, and swapped stories. A past that had long been buried slowly came to light as family members shared the pieces of the family's tale that had been passed along to them. Power in the Blood is a dramatic family history that reads like a novel, as Tate's compelling narrative reveals one mystery after another. Innovative and groundbreaking in its approach to research and storytelling, Power in the Blood shows that exploring a family story can enhance understanding of history, life, and culture and that honest examination of the past can lead to healing and liberation in the present.

Starting from a photograph and writings left by her grandmother, acclaimed African-American novelist Thulani Davis goes looking for the white folk" in her family, a Scots-Irish family of cotton planters unknown to her-and uncovers a history far richer and stranger than she had ever imagined. Her journey challenges us to examine the origins of some of our most deeply ingrained notions about what makes a family black or white, and offers an immensely compelling, intellectually challenging alternative.

The Fens remained remote until the advent of the railways in the 1860s. Even when transport links improved many of the long-established Fen families stayed put for the next 100 years, wedded as they were to a way of life that was unique to this part of England. Now, in the early years of the twenty-first century, there are still long-established businesses, trades and professions throughout the Fens that have been in the same family for generations - and are still thriving, despite pressures from the modern world of multinationals, cheap imports and online shopping. Well-known local author Rex Sly, whose own family has been living in the Fens since 1545, has researched the history of the best-known Fenland families, names that everyone who lives in the region will recognise. He has also interviewed many family members and visited their homes, shops and businesses to build up a picture that encompasses not only life in this unique area over the last few centuries but also the thriving life of the Fens today.

Farmers That Helped Shape America chronicles the settling of the untamed wilderness that is today's western Maryland and the participation of Isaac Van Sickle and his relatives in the Civil War. It also explores other historical developments, such as westward expansion; the building of the National Road; the B&O Railroad and the C&O Canal and their impact on the mid-Atlantic region. This recounting begins with the Van Sickle family, which was one of the earliest settling families in today's western Maryland. The Van Sickle family and a number of relatives played a vital role in the Battle of Monocacy (commonly referred to as the battle that saved Washington, D.C.) due to their service in the Union army as members of the Third Potomac Home Brigade. The Van Sickles's adventures were shared by untold tens of thousands of hard working, poorly educated, patriotic young men from both the north and south; Collins's retelling offers a unique insight into their Civil War era service. This story of hardships, survival, and courage of Collins's ancestors will remind the reader of the selfless sacrifices that their own ancestors made in making and defending freedom. The Van Sickles's story honors our past, present, and future soldiers.

The first and illegitimate child of Robert Burns was Elizabeth Burns, his Dear Bought Bess. The port loved and worshipped his daughter in life and in verse. Thou's welcome, Wean! Mishanter fa'me If thoughts o thee, or yet thy mammie, Shall ever daunton me or awe me My sweet wee lady, Or if I blush when thou shalt ca'me Tyta or daddie! .Gude grant thou may ay inherit (God) Thy mither's looks an' graceful merit, Any thy poor, worthless daddie's spirit, Without his failings! 'Twill please me mair to see thee heir it, Then stocket mailens (well stocked farms) Whatever failings led to her birth, Elizabeth Burns' life was treasured, making its own mark on subsequent generations to the present day. This is their story carefully captured before it was lost forever. They were the descendants of Robert Burns and his first child. They are the Poet's Progeny.

Farming in the generation between 1930 and 1960 saw changes on a previously unknown scale. On most holdings, work continued to be carried out by all the family members. Men, women and children all had roles in the production of crops and livestock. At busier times neighbors were called on for help, and workers were also hired some farms, either full-time or seasonally. All of these relationships could lead to tensions and conflict, but they also led to great intimacy and kindness, with individuals showing commitment to the well-being of their family, their neighbours, and even their employers and employees. This book uses oral history to explore life on Ulster farms between 1930 and 1960. This valuable record of the farming community describes in fascinating detail the many changes in practically every aspect of working life and their associated patterns of social life, all in the face of increasing government intervention, globalisation of markets, and the cataclysm of the Second World War. These massive changes have often been seen as damaging social networks in rural areas, but the collective memories of those involved bear witness to their marvellous capacity to adapt. The oral testimonies on which the book is based show that, for farming people, change could and did create new relationships and wider opportunities on both a prefessional and personal level.

An intergenerational chronicle of the struggles and triumphs of the Carrolls, a prominent Irish Catholic family in Protestant Maryland. Charles Carroll (1737-1832) who represents the last of the three generations of patriarchs, is perhaps best known as the sole Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. Tracing the Carroll's history from Ireland to Maryland, this account offers a transatlantic perspective of Anglo-American colonialism and reveals the often overlooked discrimination that Roman Catholics faced in colonial America.

This is a collective biography of the quintessential banking dynasty which came to prominence in France and whose successive generations gave every language the superlative "rich as Rothschild". The French Rothchilds are perhaps the most fascinating branch of the family, with a history closely intertwined with that of post-Napoleonic France, the restoration and the July monarchy. In modern times, Rothschild banking and finance in France became the most important source of funds for governments, for development of the railroad system of France, Austria, Spain and Italy, then for the global exploitation of oil and other raw materials. Until the Tsar's encouragement of anti-Jewish pogroms caused them to withdraw, the French Rothschilds also held a monopoly on the financing of Russia's industrial development. Then came the decline of the dynasty between the World Wars. The Nazi conquest deprived the Rothschilds of their bank and stately homes, their envied art collections, and prestigious vineyards and race-horses. This book describes the fate of the Rothschilds under German occupation, the post-war hunt for the family's pillaged art treasures, and the revival of the banking group under the Fourth and Fifth Republics. A final section describes the rebirth of the French dynasty, with a new generation of Rothschilds as dynamic as their 19th-century forebears.

Several Anderson families appear to share the same origins in the north-east of Scotland. In a wide-ranging study that explores the roots of Andersons in Banff and Aberdeenshire, their pedigrees are traced, through branches in Perth, Fife, Edinburgh, England and Ireland, from the early 16th century through to the present descendants. Anderson relationships through marriage with a number of other families are explained. The Lindsay family, for example, with a pedigree from the 11th century, is mentioned as well as some 200 other related families.

The astonishing true story of a young woman's adventures, and misadventures, in the dangerous world of Nazi-occupied France. For Priscilla, pre-war Paris was an exciting carousel of suitors, soirees and heartbreak, and eventually a lavish wedding to a French aristocrat. But the arrival of the Nazi tanks signalled the end of life as a Vicomtesse, and the beginning of a precarious existence under German Occupation. Over half a century later, her nephew, Nicholas Shakespeare, found a box of Priscilla's notebooks and journals. He began investigating the rumours that she had escaped a prisoner-of-war camp and fought for the Resistance - and he finally unearthed the truth behind suspicions of disreputable love affairs and far darker secrets.

When two Hungarian Jewish refugees landed by accident in Britain in the winter of 1956, they had little idea what the future would hold. But they carried with them the traces of their turbulent past, just enough to provide the clues to their past. Scattered Ghosts combines memoir, investigation and travel to resurrect 200 years of wars and revolutions, from the Austro-Hungarian Empire via two totalitarianisms to contemporary Britain. It is the story of an all but disappeared world told through the eyes of a single family ruptured by great forces, and occasionally brought together by cherry strudel. Through haphazard and fragmented possessions - a blunt-penciled letter; a final photograph; a hastily typed certificate; a protecting document; a farewell postcard from a distant place; a recipe - Nick Barlay retraces the footsteps of the vanished. There is the death march of a grandfather, the military maneuvers of a great uncle, the final weeks and moments of a great grandmother deported to Auschwitz, two boys' survival of an untold massacre, and codenamed spies operating in Cold War Britain. The ordinary mysteries and emotional legacies still resonate today in the parallel lives of far-flung family members. Diaspora, division and cultural identity form the backdrop to the story of ancestors who walked barefoot from Eastern Europe to experience Communism and Nazism, and to outlive them both. Scattered Ghosts is a family history that explores the events, great and small, on which a family's existence hinges. How did one person survive and another die? How did a Soviet tank shell cause a revolution between sisters? How did two refugees escape an invading army? Where did successive generations end up? And, ultimately, where did the recipe for cherry strudel come from?

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.

Tracing Your Channel Islands Ancestors is an expert introduction for the family historian to the wealth of material available to researchers in libraries and archives in Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark. Full information is given on how to access the civil birth, marriage and death records which are only available in the islands and differ in format from those in England and Wales. Marie-Louise Backhurst covers the census, church records, nonconformist registers, rating lists, newspapers, wills and inheritance, official records, and the variety of other sources that can illuminate a past life and make family history research so rewarding. Migration has played a large part in the history of the islands and details of the records are fully explained. This authoritative and easy-to-use guide to these collections, and the author's advice on how to use them and get the most out of them, will be invaluable to anyone who is trying to find out about the life and experience of an ancestor who lived in the Channel Islands or was connected with them. This book will equally be essential reading and reference for anyone who wants to explore the history of the Channel Islands.

An exciting new addition to any family historian's library, Family History: Digging Deeper will take your research to the next level. Joined by a team of expert genealogists, Simon Fowler covers a range of topics and provides clear advice for the intermediate genealogist. Helping you push back the barriers, this book details how to utilise the internet in your research and suggests some unusual archives and records which might just transform your research. It will teach you about genealogical traditions, variants of family history around the world and even the abuse of genealogy by the Nazis. It will help you understand current developments in DNA testing, new resources and digitised online material. Problem-solving sections are also included to help tackle common difficulties and provide answers to the brick walls often reached when researching one's ancestors. If you want to dig deeper into your family tree and the huge array of records available, then this book is for you.

Dabbling in family history is a pastime anyone of any age can enjoy, but the massive proliferation of websites, magazines and books in recent years can baffle the would-be genealogist to a standstill. This is an ideal introduction to the tools and processes of researching your past. It will teach you how to get the most information from living relatives, how to negotiate the vast quantities of census data with ease, and the best way to store, catalogue and present the information you discover. Family History for Beginners will also help you take your research to the next level, beyond the simple facts of birth, marriage and death, with chapters on occupation, emigration and military service.

Many of us have a curiosity about our family history, and may even have dabbled in research online or through our own family network. But for those of us who want to know what our ancestors were really like, how they lived and what their daily struggles and experiences were, the key often lies in our own county. In Worcestershire: A Family History Guidebook, professional local genealogist Vanessa Morgan takes us on a fascinating and easy-to-follow journey from deciding to research your Worcestershire ancestors right through to discovering more about how they lived and worked. What influence did industry have in their lives? Who were their employers? What historical events would have affected them? Family history isn't just about names and dates; this book will help you to put the flesh on bones.

The Wicklow War Dead, a comprehensive list of those from County Wicklow who died during the two world wars, is the second in this series, following the success of The Tipperary War Dead. After tireless research, Tom and Seamus Burnell put together a record of 840 soldiers, officers, sailors, airmen and nursing sisters, who listed their next of kin as being from Wicklow. The list also incorporates the airmen, soldiers and sailors buried in Wicklow during the two wars. The men honoured in Wicklow War Dead died during the First World War or following it, while in the service of the British Army, the Australian Army, the New Zealand Army, the American Army, the Indian Army, the Canadian Army, the South African Army, the Royal Navy or the British Mercantile Marine. Such a list, combined with intricate data and never-before-seen correspondence and photographs, is an essential addition to any local historian or military enthusiast's bookshelf.

Inscriptions on gravestones are an important, often unique source for genealogists. This series makes available genealogical information from graveyards, wills, newspapers, and other sources in Ulster. Since 1966, 21 volumes covering much of County Down, 3 volumes for County Antrim, and 4 volumes for Belfast have been published. Some volumes are still available in print, while those that are out-of-print are available on microfiche.