Parish registers are a vast, important but widely scattered archive. They are essential to the family historian, providing the only written record of the vast majority of our ancestors who left but three brief mentions - a baptism, a marriage and a burial. This guide to parish registers, now in its third edition, and covering England, Scotland and Wales, is a vital, time-saving tool that has become universally known as 'the genealogist's bible'. The Atlas includes the famous county 'parish' maps, which show pre-1832 parochial boundaries, colour-coded probate jurisdictions, starting dates of surviving registers, and churches and chapels, where relevant. Topographical maps face each 'parish' map, and show the contemporary road system and other local features, to help deduce the likely movement of people beyond the searcher's starting point. The Index lists the parishes, with grid references to the county maps. It indicates the present whereabouts of original registers and copies, and whether a parish is included in other indexes. It also gives registration districts and census information. Thus in this invaluable guide, the user may quickly find answers to such questions as: Have the registers been deposited? Where may they be found? What outside dates do they cover? Have they been copied or indexed, and by whom?

Throughout the twentieth century, New Mexico's LGBTQ+ residents inhabited a wide spectrum of spaces, from Santa Fe's nascent bohemian art scene to the secretive military developments at Los Alamos. Shifting focus away from the urban gay meccas that many out queer people called home, Wide-Open Desert brings to life a vibrant milieu of two-spirit, Chicana lesbian, and white queer cultural producers in the heart of the US Southwest. Jordan Biro Walters draws on oral histories, documentaries, poetry, and archival sources to demonstrate how geographic migration and creative expression enabled LGBTQ+ people to resist marginalization and forge spaces of belonging. Significant figures profiled include two-spirit Dine artist Hastiin Klah, literary magazine editor Spud Johnson, ranchera singer Genoveva Chavez, and Cherokee writer Rollie Lynn Riggs. Biro Walters explores how land communes, art circles, and university classrooms helped create communities that supported queer cultural expression and launched gay civil rights activism in New Mexico. Throughout, Wide-Open Desert highlights queer mobility and queer creative production as paths to political, cultural, and sexual freedom for LGBTQ+ people.

The seaside holiday and the seaside resort are two of England's greatest exports to the world. Since the early 18th century, when some of the wealthiest people first sought improved health by bathing in saltwater, the lure of the sea has been a fundamental part of the British way of life, and millions of people still head to the coast each year. Margate has an important place in the story of seaside holidays. It vies with Scarborough, Whitby and Brighton for the title of England's first seaside resort, and it was the first to offer sea-water baths to visitors. Margate can also claim other firsts, including the first Georgian square built at a seaside resort (Cecil Square), the first substantial seaside development outside the footprint of an historic coastal town, the site of the world's first sea-bathing hospital, and, as a result of its location along the Thames from London, the first popular resort frequented by middle- and lower-middle-class holidaymakers. It is unlikely that Margate will ever attract the vast numbers of visitors that flocked there in the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, with growing concerns about the environmental effects of air travel and a continuing awareness of the threat of excessive exposure to the sun, the English seaside holiday may enjoy some form of revival. If Margate finds ways to renew itself while retaining its historic identity, it may once again become a vibrant destination for holidays, as well as being an attractive place for people to live and work.

When Fracking Comes to Town traces the response of local communities to the shale gas revolution. Rather than cast communities as powerless to respond to oil and gas companies and their landmen, it shows that communities have adapted their local rules and regulations to meet the novel challenges accompanying unconventional gas extraction through fracking. The multidisciplinary perspectives of this volume's essays tie together insights from planners, legal scholars, political scientists, and economists. What emerges is a more nuanced perspective of shale gas development and its impacts on municipalities and residents. Unlike many political debates that cast fracking in black-and-white terms, this book's contributors embrace the complexity of local responses to fracking. States adapted legal institutions to meet the new challenges posed by this energy extraction process while under-resourced municipal officials and local planning offices found creative ways to alleviate pressure on local infrastructure and reduce harmful effects of fracking on the environment. The essays in When Fracking Comes to Town tell a story of community resilience with the rise and decline of shale gas production. Contributors: Ennio Piano, Ann M. Eisenberg, Pamela A. Mischen, Joseph T. Palka, Jr., Adelyn Hall, Carla Chifos, Teresa Cordova, Rebecca Matsco, Anna C. Osland, Carolyn G. Loh, Gavin Roberts, Sandeep Kumar Rangaraju, Frederick Tannery, Larry McCarthy, Erik R. Pages, Mark C. White, Martin Romitti, Nicholas G. McClure, Ion Simonides, Jeremy G. Weber, Max Harleman, Heidi Gorovitz Robertson

There's more to Reading than traffic, concrete and busy people. Wildlife flourishes amidst the urban hustle and with a couple of hundred open spaces, some ancient woodlands and two great rivers, Reading rewards the appreciative naturalist. Wander from town centre to suburbs exploring the parks and meadows, following the rivers and the wooded ridges, watching the seasons change. You'll be surprised at what you find. Over 25 years Adrian Lawson chronicled the wildlife he encountered in his days working in the parks, walking his dogs in the woods and riding his bike around the town. This book takes us through the calendar year with a selection of articles from his long-running newspaper column, Rural Reading, plus some new and previously unpublished pieces. Accompanied by perceptive and very personal illustrations from Geoff Sawers, equally devoted to the natural history of Reading, this exquisite collection will open your eyes to the wild side of town.

In "Shining Big Sea Water," historian Norman K. Risjord offers a grand tour of Lake Superior's remarkable history, taking readers through the centuries and into the lives of those who have traveled the lake and inhabited its shores.
Through lively, informative chapters, Risjord begins with the lake's cataclysmic geological birth, then explores the lives of native peoples along the shore before European contact and during the fur trade, showing how Superior functioned as a "blue-water highway" for Indians, early explorers, industries, and settlers. He outlines the development of such cities as Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; Ashland, Wisconsin; and Two Harbors, Minnesota, and tells the fascinating histories of life-saving lighthouses and famous shipwrecks. In the final chapter, Risjord looks to the future, offering a clear-eyed account of the environmental and economic challenges faced by America's largest freshwater lake.
Interspersed throughout the book are handy tips for travelers, highlighting historically significant sites that illustrate key pieces of Lake Superior's natural and human history, including national lakeshores in the United States and provincial parks in Canada.
Norman K. Risjord is the author of several books, including "A Popular History of Minnesota" and "Wisconsin: The Story of the Badger State," He is an emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

The first detailed study of "Neo-Antique" architecture applies an archaeological lens to the study of New York City's structures Since the city's inception, New Yorkers have deliberately and purposefully engaged with ancient architecture to design and erect many of its most iconic buildings and monuments, including Grand Central Terminal and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch in Brooklyn, as well as forgotten gems such as Snug Harbor on Staten Island and the Gould Memorial Library in the Bronx. Antiquity in Gotham interprets the various ways ancient architecture was re-conceived in New York City from the eighteenth century to the early twenty-first century. Contextualizing New York's Neo-Antique architecture within larger American architectural trends, author Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis applies an archaeological lens to the study of the New York buildings that incorporated these various models in their design, bringing together these diverse sources of inspiration into a single continuum. Antiquity in Gotham explores how ancient architecture communicated the political ideals of the new republic through the adaptation of Greek and Roman architecture, how Egyptian temples conveyed the city's new technological achievements, and how the ancient Near East served many artistic masters, decorating the interiors of glitzy Gilded Age restaurants and the tops of skyscrapers. Rather than classifying neo-classical (and Greek Revival), Egyptianizing, and architecture inspired by the ancient Near East into distinct categories, Macaulay-Lewis applies the Neo-Antique framework that considers the similarities and differences-intellectually, conceptually, and chronologically-among the reception of these different architectural traditions. This fundamentally interdisciplinary project draws upon all available evidence and archival materials-such as the letters and memos of architects and their patrons, and the commentary in contemporary newspapers and magazines-to provide a lively multi-dimensional analysis that examines not only the city's ancient buildings and rooms themselves but also how New Yorkers envisaged them, lived in them, talked about them, and reacted to them. Antiquity offered New Yorkers architecture with flexible aesthetic, functional, cultural, and intellectual resonances-whether it be the democratic ideals of Periclean Athens, the technological might of Pharaonic Egypt, or the majesty of Imperial Rome. The result of these dialogues with ancient architectural forms was the creation of innovative architecture that has defined New York City's skyline throughout its history.

From tales of early baseball in the old west to the young men who fought for Texas Independence, these short stories by experts in their fields bring together a different view of the American West-the tales of the young men and women who were part of the story. Authors included in the anthology: Larry Bjornson; Johnny D. Boggs; Joseph Bruchac; S.J. Dahlstrom; Chris Enss; Rocky Gibbons; William Groneman; Frank Keating; Jean A. Lukesh; Bill Markley; Matthew Mayo; Rod Miller; Micki Milom; Sherry Monahan; Candy Moulton; Nancy Oswald; Nancy Plain; Vicky Rose; Quackgrass Sally; Candace Simar; Ginger Wadsworth

How the famous and not-so-famous like-minded citizens all gave their time, expertise, and money to build a park legacy of incomparable benefit The Palisades park and historic site system in New York and New Jersey is a significant anchor-point for the spread of national and state parks across the nation. The challenge to protect these treasures began with a brutal blast of dynamite in the late nineteenth century and continues to this day. Palisades: The People's Park presents the story of getting from zero protected acres to the rich tapestry that is today's Palisades park system, located in the nation's most densely populated metropolitan region. This is an account of huge determination, moments of crisis, caustic resistance to the very idea of conservation, glorious philanthropy, a steep learning curve, and responsibilities for guardianship passed with care from one generation to the next. Despite the involvement of men of great wealth and fame from its earliest beginnings, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission faced an early and ongoing struggle to arrange financial support from both the New York and New Jersey state governments for a park that would cross state lines. The conflicts between developers and conservationists, industrialists and wilderness enthusiasts, with their opposing views regarding the uses of natural resources required the commissioners of the PIPC to become skilled negotiators, assiduous fundraisers, and savvy participants in the political process. The efforts to create Palisades Interstate Park was prodigious, requiring more than 1,000 real estate transactions to establish Sterling Forest, to save Storm King Mountain, to preserve Lake Minnewaska, to protect Stony Point Battlefield and Washington's headquarters, to open Bear Mountain and Harriman state parks, and to add the other sixteen parks to the Palisades Interstate Park System. Beginning with the efforts of Elizabeth Vermilye of the New Jersey Federation of Women's Clubs, who enlisted President Theodore Roosevelt's support to stop the blasting and quarrying of Palisades rock, author Robert Binnewies traces the story of the famous, including J. P. Morgan, the Rockefellers, and the Harrimans, as well as the not-so-famous men and women whose donations of time and money led to the preservation of New York and New Jersey's most scenic and historic lands. The park experiment, begun in 1900, still stands as a dynamic model among the nation's major environmental achievements.

On July 24, 1964, chaos erupted in Rochester, New York. Strike the Hammer examines the unrest-rebellion by the city's Black community, rampant police brutality-that would radically change the trajectory of the Civil Rights movement. After overcoming a violent response by State Police, the fight for justice, in an upstate town rooted in black power movements, was reborn. That resurgence owed much to years of organizing and resistance in the community. Laura Warren Hill examines Rochester's long Civil Rights history and, drawing extensively on oral accounts of the northern, urban community, offers rich and detailed stories of the area's protest tradition. Augmenting oral testimonies with records from the NAACP, SCLC, and the local FIGHT, Strike the Hammer paints a compelling picture of the foundations for the movement. Now, especially, this story of struggle for justice and resistance to inequality resonates. Hill leads us to consider the social, political, and economic environment more than fifty years ago and how that founding generation of activists left its mark on present-day Rochester.

Storyteller Tony Bonning brings together stories from one of the most enigmatic regions of Scotland: a land hemmed in by rivers and mountains; a land that vigorously maintained its independence, and by doing so, has many unique tales and legends. Here you will meet strange beasts, creatures and even stranger folk; here you will meet men and women capable of tricking even the Devil himself, and here you will find the very tale that inspired Robert Burns's most famous poem, Tam o'Shanter. With each Story told in an engaging style, and illustrated with unique line drawings, these humorous, clever and enchanting folk tales are sure to be enjoyed and shared time and again.

Wales' history is packed with peculiar customs and curious characters. Here you will discover alien landscapes, ancient druids and a Victorian ghost hunter. Find out why revellers would carry a decorated horse's skull on a pole door to door at Christmastime, how an eccentric inventor hoped to defeat Hitler with his futuristic ray gun, and why a cursed wall is protected by a global corporation for fear it might destroy a town. From the folklore surrounding the red dragon on the flag, to the evolution of the song 'Sosban Fach', this compendium of weird and wonderful facts will surprise and delight even the most knowledgeable resident or visitor.

Hoosier Beginnings tells the story of Indiana University athletics from its founding in 1867 to the interwar period. Crammed full of rare images and little-known anecdotes, it recounts how sport at IU developed from its very first baseball team, made up mostly of local Bloomington townsfolks, to the rich and powerful tradition that is the "Hoosier" legacy. Hoosier Beginnings uncovers fascinating stories that have been lost to time and showcases how Indiana University athletics built its foundation as a pivotal team in sports history. Learn about the fatal train collision that nearly stopped IU athletics in its tracks; IU's first African American football player; the infamous Baseball Riot of 1913; how a horde of students grabbed axes and chopped down 200 apple trees to make way for a new gymnasium; and the legendary 1910 football team that didn't allow a single touchdown all season-but still lost a game. Most importantly, it attempts to answer the burning question, where did the "Hoosiers" get their mysterious name?

In this entertaining book the author identifies each of the old coaching inns which provide ample evidence of Amersham's importance as a stopping place on the great coach road from London to the Midlands. He traces the history of all the town's tanneries and proves that Weller's brewery is much older than previously believed and that its many maltings were selling vast quantities of malt to London brewers in the 17th century. He does not neglect the townspeople themselves, not least the Drakes of Shardeloes who dominated the political, religious and social life of Amersham for 350 years. Here he is able to draw on the unique knowledge of Barney Tyrwhitt Drake, a direct descendant. Julian Hunt's well-researched narrative is both comprehensive and easy to read. Splendidly illustrated, it is a significant contribution to the published history of Buckinghamshire and will be warmly welcomed in and around old Amersham itself.

A century before Boston became been the birthplace of the American Revolution, Carolina Colony was the birthplace of entertainment and leisure activities in Colonial America. Building a civilized city in the uncultivated New World was hard work, but Southern settlers made sure to leave time for life's lighter pursuits. Inspired by the court of Charles II, the Merry Monarch, settlers in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Charles Town opened the country's first public library (Nov. 16, 1700); hosted Henrietta Dering Johnston, the first professional female artist in the colonies (1707-1729); performed the first opera in America at Shepeard's Tavern (Feb. 18, 1735); founded the first golf club (1786); and many other firsts as the centuries passed. Every aspect of the port city elicited pleasure, from the architecture, to the magnificent parks and manicured gardens. Charleston's remarkable landscaping was so widely known that in 1785, Louis XVI sent Andre' Michaux (known as "the king's botanist") to America to catalog and collect plants and trees for the royal nurseries in France. Throughout the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Great Depression, Charleston and other seaside towns along South Carolina's coast were fertile ground for art, music, and opportunity. It's no wonder the region has drawn famous characters for hundreds of years, from political leaders (George Washington; Thomas Heyward, Jr.; John C. Calhoun) to pirates (Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard), and the artists, writers, musicians, and architects who ushered in the Charleston Renaissance in the twentieth century. Take a journey through Charleston's past with a look at the talented people and inspiring events that shaped the city and surrounding region into a cultural mecca of art, music, dance, and design. Each chapter features an itinerary for a walking/driving tour to help readers appreciate the lesser-known side of Charleston's entertaining past.

If parks could speak, what would they say? Historic Acadia National Park is a vibrant collection of true stories that share different aspects of Acadia National Park's history. From its glacial origins, to its rising peaks near the tourist-town Bar Harbor, Acadia has a unique and fascinating history for Down Easters and tourists alike. Many of the tales focus on some of Maine's most famous land formations including Pulpit Rock, Sargent Mountain Pond, Mount Desert Rock, Otter Creek, and even the Trenton Bridge. Learn about the people who first walked these woods and how Acadia National Park evolved into the national treasure it is today.

As friends began "going back to the land" at the same time that a health issue emerged, Kathleen Alcala set out to reexamine her relationship with food at the most local level. Remembering her parents, Mexican immigrants who grew up during the Depression, and the memory of planting, growing, and harvesting fresh food with them as a child, she decided to explore the history of the Pacific Northwest island she calls home. In The Deepest Roots, Alcala walks, wades, picks, pokes, digs, cooks, and cans, getting to know her neighbors on a much deeper level. Wanting to better understand how we once fed ourselves, and acknowledging that there may be a future in which we could need to do so again, she meets those who experienced the Japanese American internment during World War II, and learns the unique histories of the blended Filipino and Native American community, the fishing practices of the descendants of Croatian immigrants, and the Suquamish elder who shares with her the food legacy of the island itself. Combining memoir, historical records, and a blueprint for sustainability, The Deepest Roots shows us how an island population can mature into responsible food stewards and reminds us that innovation, adaptation, diversity, and common sense will help us make wise decisions about our future. And along the way, we learn how food is intertwined with our present but offers a path to a better understanding of the future. Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFG8MpTo_ZU&feature=youtu.be

Repeatedly jamming his fork of curiosity into the live toaster of opportunity, comedian Richard O. Smith captures the experience of living in Oxford in probably the funniest book written about the Dreaming Spires. Collected here are 70 of his best Oxford Examined columns from the award-winning Oxford Times magazine Oxfordshire Limited Edition including several previously unpublished stories.In these unflinchingly truthful columns he meets celebrities (Kate Middleton, Dara O'Briain, the one who plays Phoebe in Friends and a predictably grumpy Alan Sugar), visits the 11th dimension with an Oxford University maths protegee, gatecrashes Encaenia, flirts with a Roman slave girl from 79AD, is ejected from the Oxford Union by burly security, witnesses a comeuppance for a pack of arrogant students, conducts a walking tour for Britain's scariest hen party, moves a library (which transpires to be harder work than moving a mountain), sees Britain's most pretentious theatre production, participates in the UK's national bell ringing championships (yes, that is a thing), allows Oxford University psychologists to experiment on him, rescues four escaped horses in a busy Oxford street (thankfully it wasn't the apocalypse), becomes a crime-fighting superhero, is hospitalised in a serious bike accident, gets chased by a furious revenge-fixated woman dressed as a Friesian cow, strides out of his house one morning and disappears down a giant sink hole, mentors two stand-up comedy virgins, commits a devastating social faux pas and pledges to never use a split infinitive or sentence this long again.

This volume presents the rich history of the old amusement parks and beach resorts frequented by Baltimoreans beginning in the 1870s and stretching into the late 20th century. Readers may recognise such popular amusement parks as Gwynn Oak, Carlin's, and Tolchester Beach, and will learn about some of the more obscure places like Frederick Road Park and Hollywood Park. Each of the major parks is documented here, complete with a detailed history of the sites they were built on, the creative owners behind the parks' inceptions, the individuals and companies who provided the rides and attractions, and, the people that happily travelled by boat, streetcar, train and automobile to reach their favourite park or resort. Like many sizable cities across the U.S. in the early 1900s, Baltimore offered numerous amusement parks and beach resorts for city residents to attend. Some sprang up along the trolley lines, others were beachside resorts typically reached by steamers departing from Baltimore harbor. Sadly, Baltimore is no longer home to a major amusement park. Most of the traditional amusement parks built in the early part of 20th century have disappeared, many falling victim to fire, changing social habits and rising land values.

This book contains hundreds of 'strange but true' stories about Scottish history. Arranged into a miniature history of Scotland, and with bizarre and hilarious true tales for every era, it will delight anyone with an interest in Scotland's past.

The classic guide to exploring English local history, brought up to date and expanded. This is a book for anyone wanting to explore local history in England. It summarises, in an accessible and authoritative way, current knowledge and approaches, bringing together and illustrating the key sources and evidence, the skills and tools, the contexts and interpretations for successive periods. Case studies show these ingredients in use, combined to create histories of people and place over time. A standard text since its first edition in 1992, this new edition features extensive fresh material, updated to reflect additional availability of evidence, changing interpretations, new tools and skills (not least the use of IT), and developments in the time periods and topics tackled by local historians. The interdisciplinary character of twenty-first-century local, family and community history is a prominent feature. Complemented by 163 illustrations, this book offers an unrivalled introduction to understanding and researching local history.

In the 1960s, many of the heavy industries in the North East of England were still busy, but facing fundamental change as better technology and foreign competition swept towards them. There is thus a singular beauty and poignancy to the shipyard cranes on the Tyne and the Wear, the towering blast furnaces, the chemical works on Teeside, infrastructure for coal shipping from Seaham Harbour and Sunderland, and home-made houseboats resting in the mud...In an era when pollution was less of a concern, dusty furnaces, smoking chimneys, and untreated waste went straight into the North Sea. Yet not too far away were glorious beaches and unspoiled countryside, and billboards advertising Roy Orbison's tour visit! People, too, were caught up in this poignant moment of transition: young lads looking for something to do; old men watching it all go by; workers busy at the docks. Industry & The Coast is a gritty, 'warts-and-all' depiction of areas with a unique story to tell, immortalised in haunting, previously unpublished images, and a captivating narrative in which the author draws from the abandoned emblems of our industrial history a deeper human significance and sense of place.

How prisons became economic development strategies for rural Appalachian communities As the United States began the project of mass incarceration, rural communities turned to building prisons as a strategy for economic development. More than 350 prisons have been built in the U.S. since 1980, with certain regions of the country accounting for large shares of this dramatic growth. Central Appalachia is one such region; there are eight prisons alone in Eastern Kentucky. If Kentucky were its own country, it would have the seventh highest incarceration rate in the world. In Coal, Cages, Crisis, Judah Schept takes a closer look at this stunning phenomenon, providing insight into prison growth, jail expansion and rising incarceration rates in America's hinterlands. Drawing on interviews, site visits, and archival research, Schept traces recent prison growth in the region to the rapid decline of its coal industry. He takes us inside this startling transformation occurring in the coalfields, where prisons are often built on top of old coalmines, including mountaintop removal sites, and built into community planning approaches to crises of unemployment, population loss, and declining revenues. By linking prison growth to other sites in this landscape-coal mines, coal waste, landfills, and incinerators-Schept shows that the prison boom has less to do with crime and punishment and much more with the overall extraction, depletion, and waste disposal processes that characterize dominant development strategies for the region. Schept argues that the future of this area now hangs in the balance, detailing recent efforts to oppose its carceral growth. Coal, Cages, Crisis offers invaluable insight into the complex dynamics of mass incarceration that continue to shape Appalachia and the broader United States.