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Old Books as Genealogy Sources
All too often, family historians rely on secondary sources of information
such as transcripts and indexes (such as the IGI). They are fine as "finding"
tools to locate ancestors, but they are subject to errors and omissions.
I would always recommend that after finding "data" in secondary sources,
that you always seek out the primary source, (that's the place where the
information originally came from), and where possible, obtain a copy of it.
In addition to parish baptism, marriage and burial registers and censuses,
there are many other primary resources that family historians rarely look
to for information, and many really excellent secondary resources that were
published in the 1800s.
| 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. |
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Deering's History of Nottingham, published in 1751.
These books and many more are available to purchase on CD from the
Premier Genealogy Specialists
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Types of books available, and how they can help with your research:
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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.
The Parish Chest has a huge collection of old directories available on CD.
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Four of the eight volumes of Alumni Oxonienses.
Parish Chest |
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:
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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
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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.
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Church Registers
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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.
The Parish Chest has a huge collection of such transcriptions
on CD as well as original church registers:
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Original Church Registers
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Books of transcriptions of registers published in the late 1800s and early
1900s
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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.
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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.
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More details about marriage licence books
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History & Topography Books
Deering's History of Nottingham - 1751
Camden's Britannia - 1588
Gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland - Cassell 1898.
Descriptions of every town, village and hamlet in the whole of Great
Britain and Ireland. Excellent maps. |
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.
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More details about history books and how they can help with your research
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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.
Testamenta Vetusta - A collection of 803 wills from the 12th to 16th
centuries
Testimenta Vetusta was collected and edited by Nicholas Harris Nicholas
and published by Nichols and Son, Parliament Street, London in 1826.
He took his wills from the British Museum, private collections, Dugdale's
Baronage, Collins' Peerage, County histories, Memoirs of Families, etc (his
preface, p. 14). He was not able to access the originals then held in Doctors'
Commons because of the difficulties imposed by the staff of those premises
(preface, page 13). Some of the wills are abstracts for genealogical purposes
where only the people and their relationships are written. He acknowledged
his debt to John Nichols' "Collection of Royal Wills".
Nicholas' prime purpose was to illustrate from those wills the manners
and customs of their times; additionally he wished to include the descents
and possessions of families. For every will he gives some footnotes to determine
the person and other relevant information.
For anyone with an interest in medieval times, it is enthralling as
an illustration of the manners and customs of their times. These wills describe
what those persons held dear: what better introduction to their lifestyles
can you imagine? For genealogists there is priceless information given in
the wills about their families.
All of the above books (and over a thousand more) are available on
CD from Parish Chest
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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:
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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.
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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!
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More about books of wills
- Lots of information about Wills is available from the Parish Chest.
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Pedigrees
The Peerage of England 1741 & 1750
On CD from
Parish Chest
Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 1881
This well known Burkes Peerage is comprehensive and well indexed.
Published in 1881 it follows a time when many changes occurred in the peerage.
It contains lists of Peers and Baronets, Family Surnames, Courtesy Titles,
Daughters of Peers and Baronets married to commoners, Archbishops and Bishops,
Foreign titles held by British subjects, Privy Councillors, Knights of various
orders and those who received the Victoria Cross. Also listed are the person's
genealogy and where applicable an illustration of their coat of arms.
On CD from
Parish Chest
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These fall into three main types:
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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.
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Peerages
The well-known ones are the Burke's Peerages, although there were many others.
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Visitations
Usiually 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.
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Emigration
The Emigrant's Guide to South Africa
This delightful book contains just about all that there is to know
about emigration from England to South Africa in the 1880s. From the booking
of ships and the journey, to what to expect in the colony, with detail right
down to what to grow in your kitchen garden in each month of the year. |
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.
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Lifestyle
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.
Almost 900 pages of testimonies and interviews, covering various types
of factories and work in a wide variety of places in Britain.
An amazing and fascinating insight into conditions of work and peoples'
lifestyle in 1842 in their own words.
Available
on CD from Parish Chest.
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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
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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
Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches - T Carlyle 1846
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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.
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Maps
Ogilby's Road Maps - 1675
Maps covering every county are available from the
Parish Chest.
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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!
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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!
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More about "how to" books
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