Tracing History Through Title Deeds

Property title deeds are perhaps the most numerous sources of historical evidence but also one of the most neglected. While the information any one deed contains can often be reduced to a few lines, it can be of critical importance for family and local historians. Nat Alcock's handbook aims to help the growing army of enthusiastic researchers to use the evidence of these documents, without burying them in legal technicalities. It also reveals how fascinating and rewarding they can be once their history, language and purpose are understood. A sequence of concise, accessible chapters explains why they are so useful, where they can be found and how the evidence they provide can be extracted and applied. Family historians will find they reveal family, social and financial relationships and local historians can discover from them so much about land ownership, field and place names, the history of buildings and the expansion of towns and cities. They also bring our ancestors into view in the fullness of life, not just at birth, marriage and death, and provide more rounded pictures of the members of a family tree.

Tracing your Family History using Irish Newspapers is a great introduction for the family historian into Irish newspapers, journals and periodicals and how these resources can be used to paint a picture of the lives of your ancestors with so much more than what can be found in primary source material. An informative guide with hints and tips throughout, as well as case studies and excerpts that show you the type of material you can find on your ancestors, their lives and where they lived. Natalie Bodle explores how to find information in biographies, genealogies and name books, as well as how to find your ancestors in the official record, The Gazette, and how to track them down in street directories, including a range of physical and online libraries, portals and book publishers who have a focus on Irish genealogy material.

The census is an essential survey of our population, and it is a source of basic information for local and national government and for various organizations dealing with education, housing, health and transport. Providing the researcher with a fascinating insight into who we were in the past, Emma Jolly’s new handbook is a useful tool for anyone keen to discover their family history. With detailed, accessible and authoritative coverage, it is full of advice on how to explore and get the most from the records. Each census from 1841 to 1911 is described in detail, and later censuses are analyzed too. The main focus is on the census in England and Wales, but censuses in Scotland, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are all examined and the differences explained. Particular emphasis is placed on the rapidly expanding number of websites that offer census information, making the process of research far easier to carry out. The extensive appendix gathers together all the key resources in one place. Emma Jolly’s guide is an ideal introduction and tool for anyone who is researching the life and times of an ancestor.

This book is innovative. A plethora of genealogy books primarily assume that family history research is by adults, for adults, marking family history as an ‘adults only’ sphere of life. This book establishes a new dimension in family history research. It is written in the belief that engaging in family history is a venture for all of the present-day family, regardless of age and, sometimes, because of age. To assist those of all ages who venture into this wider domain of family history the book is laden with practical examples. The author has an outstanding educational background with marked national success at all levels, from sole-teacher of a rural school to professorship achievements. At each level he has been noted nationally. His qualifications reflect this lasting commitment to education with imagination and an abiding belief in the potential of families and their children. He is an acknowledged international expert in teams and team leadership. The subject of his Doctor of Philosophy thesis was in this field and his Master of Philosophy thesis, ‘The Singing Word’, was an experiential development of children’s creative writing. He is a lifelong genealogist. This book, assuredly, has new material for families, educators and children. It leads from their research of the family’s yesterdays to depictions of the family’s contemporary setting. It then leads children and adults into factual and creative portrayals of their present lives which will be handed on to future generations as informative elements of past and present family history.

Scotland is a land with a proud and centuries long history that far pre-dates its membership of Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Today in the 21st century it is also a land that has done much to make its historical records accessible, to help those with Caledonian ancestry trace their roots back to earlier times and a world long past. In Tracing Scottish Family History on the Internet, Chris Paton expertly guides the family historian through the many Scottish records offerings available, but also cautions the reader that not every record is online, providing detailed advice on how to use web based finding aids to locate further material across the country and beyond. He also examines social networking and the many DNA platforms that are currently further revolutionising online Scottish research. From the Scottish Government websites offering access to our most important national records, to the holdings of local archives, libraries, family history societies, and online vendors, Chris Paton takes the reader across Scotland, from the Highlands and Islands, through the Central Belt and the Lowlands, and across the diaspora, to explore the various flavours of Scottishness that have bound us together as a nation for so long.

A simple, easy-to-use guide to tracing your Irish ancestry via the Internet. In this, the fully updated second edition of his best-selling guide to researching Irish history using the Internet, Chris Paton shows the extraordinary variety of sources that can now be accessed online. Although Ireland has lost many records that would have been of great interest to family historians, he demonstrates that a great deal of information survived and is now easily available to the researcher. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland, organizations such as FindmyPast Ireland, Ancestry.co.uk, and RootsIreland and the volunteer genealogical community, an ever-increasing range of Ireland’s historical resources are accessible from afar. As well as exploring the various categories of records that the family historian can turn to, Chris Paton illustrates their use with fascinating case studies. He fully explores the online records available from both the north and the south from the earliest times to the present day. Many overseas collections are also included, and he looks at social networking in an Irish context where many exciting projects are currently underway. Paton’s book is an essential introduction and reference for anyone who is keen to trace their Irish roots.

“If you have Irish family roots, this book is an excellent resource and guide to help you to make the most of your researches on ancestors.” —Leicestershire & Rutland Family History Society The history of Ireland is one that was long dominated by the question of land ownership, with complex and often distressing tales over the centuries of dispossession and colonization, religious tensions, absentee landlordism, subsistence farming, and considerably more to sadden the heart. Yet with the destruction of much of Ireland’s historic record during the Irish Civil War, and with the discriminatory Penal Laws in place in earlier times, it is often within land records that we can find evidence of our ancestors’ existence, in some cases the only evidence, where the relevant vital records for an area may never have been kept or may not have survived. In Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, genealogist and bestselling author Chris Paton explores how the surviving records can help with our ancestral research, but also tell the stories of the communities from within which our ancestors emerged. He explores the often controversial history of ownership of land across the island, the rights granted to those who held estates and the plights of the dispossessed, and identifies the various surviving records which can help to tease out the stories of many of Ireland’s forgotten generations. Along the way Chris Paton identifies the various ways to access the records, whether in Ireland’s many archives, local and national, and increasingly through a variety of online platforms. “An essential read for anyone taking their Irish research seriously.” —Who Do You Think You Are Magazine