The Oxford Guide to Family History

by David Hey (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1993

  $3.25

  Aimed at those wishing to discover more about their ancestors, this book offers advice on tracing a family tree. The author advises on how to get started, where to look for records, and how to decipher old handwriting. He also suggests ways of finding out about ordinary peole down the centuries; their ways of life, professions, and so on. Family history is a subject with broad concerns, including the origin, spread, and sometimes the decline and disappearance of families. The work of social historians is therefore of great interest, whether dealing with the size of families, the ages at which people married, or the mobility of the population. David Hey highlights these aspects of social history that are most relevant to family history research and suggests lines of enquiry that may be followed with profit and enjoyment by family historians - the past and present distribution of surnames, the stability of certain families, and the mobility of others.

• Used

  Paperback
  1998

  $3.25

  Leading family historian David Hey offers practical guidance on how to trace family origins on the basics of research -- how to get started, where to find records, and how to decipher early styles of handwriting. He also uses social history to suggest where to begin this search: such as in the networks of kinship and inheritance, and the stability or mobility of certain families. Containing more than a hundred black and white illustrations showing family groups, houses, monuments, archive records, and family trees, this book is essential reading for those interested in tracing their lineage. 'remarkable value for its combination of social history, gracefully told, and lucid instruction' Antonia Fraser 'marvellous book' Daily Mail 'a thoughtful and thought-provoking book, finely researched and well written.' Family Tree Magazine 'This book is an invaluable how-to-do-it guide'