This handy book is a timeline guide to genealogical resources - what
records are available and when they started - as well as an aide-memoire
to significant historical events from 1066 to present; helping to put
family ancestors into an historical context. Each page in this book has
a main column with facts of genealogical relevance in the broadest
sense; a side column makes mention of events of socio-cultural
significance and events relating to the monarchy, the State and the
Church. Entries cover historical and genealogical aspects of all four
countries of the UK plus Ireland and the Channel Islands, as well as
significant historical events in the wider world that had an impact
here.
The timeline is especially strong on the contribution of migration,
extreme weather, disasters, epidemics, wars, nonconformist religions,
taxation, transport, the armed services, famine, empire, organized
labor, social writers, mapmakers, political unrest and scientific
advances. Genealogically, there is information on changes to BMD
certificates and the associated register entries, as well as to censuses
and the facts they collected, plus much more. There are also references
to earlier records that generated name indexes such as muster rolls and
poll taxes, how complete they are and where they can be found. By being
reasonably balanced across the centuries, the authors have resisted the
temptation to include excessive detail on recent history.
This book will help the family historian to construct a timeline for
their ancestors, providing a fairly full set of historical events,
developments and records likely to have had an impact on them, their
family and community. It is a handy reference guide to a myriad of dates
but is also a useful book to study when writing a family history as it
offers plenty of contextual information. It should also prompt readers
to search out new resources in tracing their ancestors.
