Introducing Family History
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Cover ImageIntroducing Family History

By Stuart A. Raymond. 146 pages. ISBN 1-86006-196-6.

Every family has a history. Most of us know something about our parents and our grandparents, but there is usually much more information that could be discovered. That information can be fascinating, and often explains why things were the way they were in our childhood.

Family history has become much easier to research in the last few years. Some of the most important sources are now available at the click of a mouse on the Internet. However, a basic understanding of these sources is still essential if you are to trace your family tree.

This book provides the basic guidance needed to begin your investigations into your family history. The author explains what sources of information are available, where to find them, and how to use them. He tells you how to trace your ancestors, and encourages you to understand their lives against the background of the society they lived in.

Promotional Offer

This book is now available at the following reduced prices:

Destination Price
(including postage)
United Kingdom £ 8.05
Europe £ 9.20
Rest of the World £ 10.75

Direct Order Line

All items can be ordered by telephone using a credit or debit card by calling us on 01706 281088 (or 44 706 281088 if you're dialling from outside the UK).

Order by Post.

Cheques/postal orders (in UK pounds only) should be made payable to "The Family History Partnership" and sent to the address shown at the bottom of this page. You may also find it convenient to use our printable order form. Orders will normally be dispatched within seven working days of receipt.

Online Ordering

Most items can also be purchased via the internet through the Family History Partnership's pages on "GENfair" and "The Parish Chest".

Recent Reviews

"The latest book to come from the prolific word processor of Stuart Raymond is in my opinion misnamed. This is far more than an introduction to Family History. It is in fact a summary of all the sources available to the researcher from family anaecdotes to manorial records. Each section contains an extensive bibliography and there are illustrations of the archival material referred to such as Churchwardens' Accounts.

General information is highlighted in different colours to emphasise it. At moderate £8.95 plus postage and packing this would make an ideal present not only for the beginner but also the "past-the-first-stager" in your family.

And a plea to any budding authors; you won't better this book as an introduction to family history, but what about earlier records? Continuing your family history back to the Black Death for example. I'm sure it would receive enthusiastic reviews."

Elizabeth Warwick
Footprints (Northamptonshire FHS journal),
August 2007

I believe this to be an excellent book, with a most comprehensive guide to the records available to any Family Historian. It was easy to read, and is interspersed with unobtrusive illustrations. But, what is most helpful, is that Mr. Raymond has separated out the lists of books for further reading; web pages; addresses of Record Offices, printed in identifiable coloured patches. That is, blue patches for books; yellow for web pages; and green for Record Repositories. The items in the book which the reader or researcher should never ignore are the comments on red patches! These are his “Health Warnings” or “False Assumptions“. In fact the one on Page 36 should be written out and attached to everyone’s computer -- “It’s all on the Internet! No it is not..!“ and explains why. Also, he has not forgotten the many people who do not have access to the internet, or who prefer to go along to a Record Repository and plough through records for themselves.

Mr. Raymond insists that this is a book for Beginners, saying that one should research back from one’s self - generation to generation, and not jump into a family one hundred or so years ago, that we cannot prove are ours, just because they have the same name. However I am sure it would be of considerable assistance to many of us who are not Beginners, so thoroughly described are the records available to us, and methods of making use of them. Also, he does try to impress upon his readers that this should be a story of their Family, shown in their own time in History, not just a list of names and dates.

Added to this, at the end of the book there is an Index, a list of Chapman County Codes, and an Appendix of Abbreviations and Acronyms. In this day and age, we so often become used to referring to many things by their initials, forgetting that not everybody knows what we are talking about. Mr. Raymond should also be congratulated in that he has not forgotten others who have helped him in producing this book, and acknowledging individually the illustrations he has used. It is a book which is thoroughly worth owning.

Joyce Finnemore
The Midland Ancestor (BMSGH journal), April 2007.

 

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