Sporting Ancestors

Sport, in its many forms, is an important part of British heritage and our family histories are littered with amateur and professional sporting references. As people moved from country to town, sport became fashionable and organised, and our ancestors left us with records of their sporting deeds. Newspaper reports, minute books, club histories, team photographs and even cartoons are all available to the family historian. Discover which sports were played when, where and why. Read example case studies, find out how to begin your own research and learn what resources are available to help you progress. From Victorian prizefighters to Edwardian ladies’ archery, from inter-war football teams to the shin-kicking contests of the Cotswold Olimpicks – Sporting Ancestors is the essential guide for those wanting to explore what part sport has played in their national and family history.

Much family history focuses on digging around archives and web searches. Here, Karen Foy shows that our attics and cupboards can often hide a treasure trove of personal documents and ephemera. Boxes full of photographs, hastily written notes, old tickets, postcards, ration books, a soldier's hat, a bundle of letters, perhaps a diary, are all invaluable sources of information about our family history. These are crucial in piecing together the everyday lives of our ancestors, exposing secrets, and family relationships. You might discover favourite family recipes, information about their schooldays, reconstruct a Victorian family holiday. This book guides you through 200 years of different types of memorabilia: how to interpret them and how to use them to make your own family history – perhaps making a scrapbook or website.

Have you ever thought about what sporting activities your ancestors might have been involved with? Were they on the local cricket or football team, or did they play darts at the local pub? Were they keen anglers, swimmers or lifesavers? What about horse racing or regular track and field events? Perhaps they were good administrators and served on sporting committees rather than playing themselves. Men and women were both involved with sports and who can forget their own school sports. Many communities had a local cricket, football or other sporting team and in some cases memorabilia and/or photographs have been handed down to alert us to an ancestor's involvement in a sporting activity. We may simply discover someone's involvement when searching newspapers or perhaps there is a mention of a sporting club in a funeral notice. How do you discover more about what they did? This guide shows you where to look for more information and how to make the most of searching websites, newspapers, original records and published sources.