Illustrated on the bookshelf:

a Pigot's 1841 Directory, with thousands of names, and descriptions of towns & villages

a parish history, written by a vicar in 1898

a county guide book, published in 1912

a county directory of Durham (huge! and with 1,300 pages) published in 1894

three volumes of Phillimore's parish marriage register transcripts, published in 1895 covering every marriage in every parish in each county from the start of registers (1538) to 1812. This set for Leicestershire has 12 volumes.

County Directories

This is where we can start to add some serious meat to the bare bones of names and dates in our family history. County directories began in ernest around the 1820s (although there were some at the end of the 1700s) with the publications of Pigot & Co.

A county directory in those early editions, listed people with trades (anyone with a trade, not just businesses though), and important people in each parish, together with short descriptions of each place and its facilities and history. There followed, from about 1830, some more comprehensive directories by other companies, one notable one being White's of Sheffield. These were much thicker books, extending to 600 pages or more, and contained much more detail. They also included some excellent history information, some of them in great detail. These books are very sought after, and can now be very expensive to purchase - assuming that you can even find them!

But they are available on CD!

The latter half of the 19th century saw the introduction of the Kelly's directories. (A few were published in the 1840s). These gradually developed to include more and more information, presented in different ways, and began to include private residents (without trades) too. An average Kelly's directory of the 1800s from a book dealer now costs around £90 to £150 per volume, and those of the 1900s a little less.

• Directories in more detail and how they can help with family history research

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Directories of Clergymen

Four of the eight volumes of Alumni Oxonienses.

Clergymen are notoriously difficult to track down! They moved about a lot!

But there are a series of books that make your research so much easier:

• Crockford's Directories
  Published from the mid 1800s onwards, they are alphabetical listings of clergymen, with details about them, where they are at the moment, and other biographical details

• College Alumni Records
  Wonderful resources! They show the biographical details of clergymen, information about their college degrees, the school that they attended, often fathers' details, and the places that they served, death dates, etc.

• The Clergy List 1906
  With Clerical Guide and Ecclesiastical Directory. Containing complete lists of the clergy in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the Colonies. Including Army, Navy, Prison, Union, and Foreign Chaplains, &c.

• Books about Clergyman in more detail

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Church Registers

Over the years there has been a concerted effort to transcribe and index parish registers. This work begain in the late 1800s when a plethora of small limited edition books were published. These are now extremely rare, although they do occasionally come onto the private market through book dealers. In more recent years there have been more indexes and transcriptions made by family history societies.

Parish Chest has a huge collection of such transcriptions on CD as well as original church registers:

• Original Church Registers
• Books of transcriptions of registers published in the late 1800s and early 1900s
• Transcriptions made in more recent times - either by individuals or family history societies.

There is still no substitute for the original registers when it comes to accuracy of information. They are the primary records. But good transcripts, which are secondary sources, are usually very good indeed, and much easier to use by far.

• Books of Church registers in more detail

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Marriage Licences

Marriage Licences: Vicar General of the Archbishop of Canterbury 1660-1694 (4 vols.) Published by the Harleian Society 1890

Many marriage licences books are available on CD from the Parish Chest

The normal way of marrying was (still is) by the reading of Banns in church for three consecutive weeks before the marriage. However, an alternative way is to obtain a licence to marry immediately, and many people did. Those licences are preserved, and in many cases have been transcribed and published in books, usually around 1890-1920.

Those books are invaluable sources of information, especially as they give us some excellent family history clues, including the home parishes of the couple, ages, occupations, marital status (widow, etc.) and very often a father's name - some things that are not on pre 1837 marriage records. In addition, there was often a "bond" - an agreement to be married - and the bondsman (usually a relative) is also shown.

A licence may be issued in a different county from that of the couple, and this is very often the case. For example licences issued in the Diocese of London will include couples from all over Great Britain.

• More details about marriage licence books

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History and Topography

Deering's History of Nottingham - 1751

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What some people consider to be "dry" books. But how wrong they are!

Records of a town are the really juicy ones! They usually have a title something like "Annals of ...." or "Records of the Borough of........". They contain fascinating stories, anecdotes, and records of ordinary events relating to ordinary people.

History books, especially those for a county, are full of really useful information about places at the time our ancestors lived, and give a tremendous insight into what was happening at the time. What were the events that influenced the way that your ancestors lived, and led to their decision making? This stuff is very much a part of your family's history!

Topography books - descriptions of a county or a place - similarly give so much useful information. Everything from the way that the geology influences the soil types and hence the agriculture, to natural resources that influence early industries. The lie of the land, descriptions of the sites and situations of places, and of the settlements.

Some people are satisfied by just collecting names and dates - a family tree - but without adding any meat to the bare bones of their research. History and topography books do that.

• More details about history books and how they can help with your research

Wills

Abstracts of PCC Wills 1620 "Soame"

Abstracts of all of the wills from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury for 1620. Each entry lists the names of the beneficiaries and their relationship to the deceased, plus some other details. Provides the necessary information to order copies of the original wills easily. Covers the whole of England.

The above book (and over a thousand more) are available on CD from
Parish Chest

Everybody knows of them. Few people use them in their research.

They are probably the most under used, and yet most useful source of family history information.

They tell us so much! A will normally gives us a whole family, and tells us about what the person owned. Everything from houses and land to spoons and bedding.

We can get access to the actual wills, but first we need to locate them. That's where books come in useful. There are two types of books on wills:

• Calendars of Wills
  Names, with dates and places. Arranged yearly for a court where they were proved. Not a lot of detail, but invaluable for tracing if a will exists and where to find it.
• Abstracts of Wills
  A transcript of the main points from wills. All of the beneficiaries and their relationships. Wonderful stuff, as it saves you having to extract the information from old awkward to read hand-written documents. Abstracts are usually published for one court for one year's worth of wills. It doesn't matter if your ancestor didn't die in that particular year - it is the information that they contain about the living people that is important!

Either way, use them to locate copies of the actual originals, and write off to order them. Copies are cheap!

Whole family trees can be built up from the information contained in wills!

• More about books of wills

Lots of information about Wills available from the  Parish Chest.

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Pedigrees

The Peerage of England 1741 & 1750
On CD from Parish Chest

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These fall into three main types:

• Genealogy Research Pedigrees
  Where someone has researched the family tree of a surname and has published it. There were lots of them done in the late 1800s. Good stuff, although be a little wary of accepting them without proving it for yourself with reference to actual records, as some of the Victorian pedigree researchers were sometimes a little over zealous in "proving" links to important people.
  
  
• Peerages
  The well-known ones are the Burke's Peerages, although there were many others.
  
  
• Visitations
  Usually carried out in the 1500s and 1600s - essentially to prove the right to coats of arms. Excellent, and often extremely useful, in that they go way back into ancestors in Norman times in the 1100s and 1200s.

Pedigrees, Peerages and Visitations are all available from the Parish Chest - the biggest online family history shop.

Emigration

The Emigrant's Guide to South Africa

During the 1800s and early 1900s there were lots of books written about emigration from the British Isles to various locations in the world. They are invaluable sources of background information for family history researchers, as in most cases they contain an immense amount of information about shipping, costs, conditions, employment, descriptions and lifestyle and facilities of the places concerned.

More books on Emigration can be found at the Parish Chest - the UK's largest online genealogy shop.

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Life style

Evidence on the Employment of Children - 1842

This huge volume of 1842, reproduced as a facsimile copy on CD, is a government publication containing evidence on the employment of children. Evidence is stated by means of interviews with the employers, adult workers and children, relating to the work and life style conditions of the children.

Available on CD from Parish Chest.

We are finding more and more books that are of a general nature, such as first hand descriptions of country life, employment and industries in towns, etc. in the 1800s.

These provide an invaluable source of excellent background information for historians and genealogists. The real meat to how our ancestors lived at the time.

Happy Homes and How To Make Them

• Lifestyle / Social History books can be purchased from the Parish Chest

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War Records

The Magazine of The Great War

A weekly magazine in 272 volumes. "A standard history of the World-Wide Conflict, including eye-witnesses' stories of striking incidents throughout the field of operations". Parish Chest

There are many books relating to wars. Some of these contain more detail than others.

For service personnel in the early 1800s and 1700s it is always well worth looking at Almanacs, (even the Irish Almanacs have records of British Army and Navy personnel) especially if you are looking for people with ranks.

National Roll of the Great War, a series of books publsihed in 1921 which list not only servicemen and details of their records, but also civilians who gave their services, such as nurses, etc.

Magazines and newspapers published at the time, especially of the Boer War and World War I can be fascinating, and often give graphic detail and photographs of the campaigns and battles in which your ancestors were involved.

Much has also been written in great detail about earlier wars, such at the civil war, the Napoleonic wars, etc. Not modern books, but old books written during or just after the events. Fascinating stuff, and many with anecdotal stories of ordinary people.

See the Miltary Books at Parish Chest

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Maps

Ogilby's Road Maps - 1675

Maps are one of the most valuable tools for historians and genealogists. Some of the CDs that we produce are of maps only, or are gazeteers and atlases that contain maps.

One of the most fascinating aspects of family history is to look at the spheres of influence of market towns and which villages in the surrounding areas they served. Those things had an influence on the ways that our ancestors behaved, just as they do today in fact.

Sometimes we are fortunate to find street maps of towns, and some of those in the collection of CD books date back as early as the 1600s... right through to street maps of towns of the 20th century. These are a "must" to include in your family history file.

Another really interesting series of maps are the old road maps. What was the route taken by your ancestors when they moved or travelled to another place. Old road maps are available in book form from as early as 1675!

Maps can be purchased online at the Parish Chest.

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Genealogy 'How To' books

The Genealogists Guide - Marshall 1903

The subject of how to go about genealogy research is not a modern phenomenon. The Victorians were particularly intrigued by family history much as we are today. Some of the authors were undoubted experts on the subject, and, the methods, records and sources that they describe are just as applicable today as they were in the 1800s. They include a great number of resources described in great detail, many of which we tend to ignore today. Perhaps we just didn't know that they existed?

Books such as these widen your scope for research very considerably indeed!

There are heaps of 'How To' books and CDs at the Parish Chest - your largest online family history shop

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