Customer Reviews

Ancestral Trails. The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History, Second Edition

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"No other publication gives such comprehensive and up-to-date guidance on tracing British ancestry and researching family history. Illustrated throughout with more than ninety examples of the major types of records, and with detailed lists of further reading, Ancestral Trails will be the essential companion and guide for all family historians." Anthony Camp, Director, Society of Genealogists.

This excellent publication was created in association with the prestigious Society of Genealogists, perhaps akin to the US' National Genealogical Society. The author Mark D. Herber is a solicitor who began researching his family in 1979. He has successfully traced some of his lines back to around 1580.

Indeed I was impressed with this 674 page "encyclopedia." (Quotes added for emphasis!) The bibliography alone is twenty-two pages. My experience with English records has been limited to early parish records in Devon and some Court of Canterbury wills, so I was most eager to have the opinion of three friends who do extensive English, Welsh and Irish research, and indeed are successful in helping others make strong headway in their research. You can imagine the excitement at our local LDS Family History Center as they poured over the book with uncustomary enthusiasm!

The consensus is that ANCESTRAL TRAILS is as definitive of British research as Ancestry's THE SOURCE is of American genealogy. Lew, a 1st generation Brit, was impressed with the chapter on military records, and made a note to order the book forthwith. Elsie, born of English immigrant parents, had been inquiring previously about manor court records and found this publication provided more than she had found in explanation elsewhere. I was impressed with the 94 illustrations, including typical certificates of vital records, representative samples of wills and the like.

Also impressive is the attention given to beginning genealogists. Basics such as pedigree charts, personal recollections & memorabilia, spelling, handwriting, dates, obtaining certificates and organization of collected materials are discussed with ample illustrations.

Additional chapters include: General Problems Encountered by Researchers, Civil Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Census Returns, Parish Registers, Churchyards and Cemeteries, Directories, Combining Sources, Archives, Libraries and Family History Societies, Wills and Administrations,Catholic, Nonconformist and Jewish Records, Marriage and Divorce, Maps, Land Registrations and Property Records, Local and Social History, Newspapers and Elections,Parish and Town Records, Records of the Army, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force, Records of Shipping and Seaman, Records of Trades, Professions and Business, Oaths, Taxation and Insurance Records Records of Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts, Records of the Criminal Courts and Criminals, Education, Peerages, the Gentry, Famous People and Heraldry, Further Property Records, Tracing Migrants and Living Relatives, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands Immigration, Emigration and Investigation Abroad

Appendices included essential information under the following topics: Codes for areas and volumes in the GRO Indexes, Indexes to other GRO records, Chapman County Codes, Seize Quarters of Bessie Maude Symes, Extracts from the Bullied and Keates family trees, Public Record Office Information Leaflets, County Record Offices & other archives, Commencement dates of the reigns of English and British monarchs, Wills & Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury: A Summary of Finding-Aids, Records of the Court of Chancery: A summary of Finding-Aids.

Owing only to its tiny print, you'll need a magnifying glass in addition to your bi-focals to glean all that's contained in Ancestral Trails. On the best advice of our resident "British Research Gurus," I most heartily recommend this book.

DearMYRTLE

Daily Genealogy Columnist

Genealogy Forum on America Online

Keyword: dearmyrtle

The field of genealogical research in Great Britain is littered with literature. This scepter'd isle has a long history of excellently preserved source records, an enthusiastic community of genealogists, and a wealth of authors willing to guide the enthusiasts through the records. Given this background, it is difficult to imagine that a new work on British genealogical research could quickly become a new "standard reference". Mark Herber has made his Ancestral Trails just such a standard. Ancestral Trails, written in association with the Society of Genealogists in the United Kingdom, is 688 pages of top quality writing, organization, and completeness of coverage. It takes a textbook approach to the subject of genealogical records, leading the reader from the more basic sources such as civil registration and parish records on to the more specialized such as military and educational records. Far from being dry in style, the author uses well chosen examples from his own years of researching his ancestors to explain how the record types in question can be used by the family historian. Some authors who use examples from their own research can detract from their work by doing so. In contrast, Mark Herber has made his personal examples of real research situations enhance the text because of their relevancy to his topics. Nearly one hundred examples of significant records are included as illustrations. Researchers experienced in using British records as well as beginners will find this encyclopedic guide useful. The author covers newly-available resources such as the 1881 Census Index and provides excellent research advice and several clever shortcuts to using this new finding aid. Those researchers with Essex ancestors will be doubly blessed by this book as many of Mark Herber's examples are from research in that county. The extensive bibliography really sets this book apart as a new standard reference. Almost one thousand bibliographic references are conveniently referenced from within the book's 30 chapters. Researchers familiar with particular record types will be pleasantly surprised to find Ancestral Trails referring to an exhaustive list of other works on the topic. The author's writing style lucidly describes the important considerations when working with a record type and seamlessly refers the reader to the more specialized works of other authors for greater detail. Ancestral Trails is a thick and thorough tome and an excellent addition to the research knowledge of anyone with British ancestry.

I checked this book out from my local library because I felt that I was floundering with my British research. This book answered all the questions that I had, and much, much more. I'm not going to write a long review of this because there are a couple of other excellent reviews here already. I just wanted to add that there is a second edition of this book, from January 2004, available in England, but unfortunately not in the US yet. Because the internet is so valuable to those of us trying to do research from abroad, I decided to spend the extra money and order the newer edition from www.amazon.co.uk . It is more expensive, but it seemed worth it to me to have the most recent edition. If that's important to you, check the publication date on the edition advertised.

This is simply the best manual of English genealogy ever published. Let's hope any upcoming edition acknowledges the existance of the Internet.

Ancestral Trails by Mark Herber is a must have reference book for those pursuing their ancestors in England! Mr. Herber lays out the record sets that are available, their content, and the jurisdicitions they were created in. He goes into great detail, and has done a superb job in his sourcing. If you want to learn about English genealogy, or as a professional have a handy reference to consult, this is the book to have. As a professional genealogist, this is a must. I needed this book quickly, and was grateful that Amazon.com was able to rush it to me the next day.

FamilyTapestry

When a new edition appears of a genealogical reference book I have found especially useful, I don't necessarily, automatically, buy the new edition. If the updated information is primarily new addresses and phone numbers, but the meat of the book has stayed essentially the same, . . . well, one can always look up that sort of thing on the Internet. The first edition of Herber's fine work -- which has already acquired the label "Bible of British genealogy" -- appeared in 1997 and ran to 674 pages of extremely thorough discussion of sources for research in Britain. The second edition, published in association with the Society of Genealogists, is fully one-third longer. After paging through it at a conference, I counted up my pennies and bought it. And I haven't regretted the expense. While most of my own family lines are what some would call "Old American," their progenitors having arrived here before the 19th century, the same is not necessarily true of many of the in-laws and friends on whose behalf I have carried out research. And even though our legal system owes much to the English common law, there are decided differences between the bureaucratic history of Britain's unitary form of government and our own federal system. Until comparatively recently, Britain's principal record-keeping body was the civil parish, and while many of the old volumes from the "parish chest" are now held by the Public Record Office and its branches, they are still organized by the old jurisdictions. Britain never had "public lands" open for claim and settlement, so ownership of real property was traditionally proved by a thick stack of successive title deeds and conveyances. This system, too, has been modernized, but the family researcher will need to understand the older system. The novice British researcher is often told that unless his 19th or 18th century ancestor was wealthy, or at least middle class, there's no point in searching for a will. And while it's true that earlier British laws of inheritance spelled out how one's interest in real property would descend to one's heirs (by primogeniture, usually), even a workman had personal possessions and the tools of his trade that he could leave to whomever he wished. One of my own ancestors appears to have arrived in America as part of the British military contingent sent to fight "The War of Jenkins' Ear" (my favorite name for any war, any time . . .), and even though that was in 1739, I was amazed to discover how complete the surviving regimental records were. The author will lead you through that maze, too. In fact, there is no area of recordkeeping, governmental, religious, or private, that Herber does not give consideration to. He's a lawyer by training and he possesses the trait of making careful distinctions between matters that appear similar but are actually different. He's also a very talented wordsmith with the knack of clear and concise explanations of sometimes complex topics. Throughout the book, he uses anecdotes from his own researched family as examples, most of them thoroughly down to earth. This is not the sort of work most people would read straight through (though some of us enjoy doing exactly that), but you should keep it in mind when you discover that link to a British lineage.

Undoubtedly, this has to be one of the best research and information books available for the SERIOUS GENEALOGIST WHO IS RESEARCHING THEIR BRITISH ANCESTORS. The information contained in this book is well presented and concise. There are so many aspects of records from the past outlined here, and many of them are possibly rarely ever considered or even known about by many family historians. THIS IS A MUST HAVE REFERENCE BOOK FOR ANY GENEALOGIST LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ABOUT ANCESTORS WHO LIVED IN BRITAIN. THIS IS THE BOOK FOR EVERY GENEALOGIST, WHETHER THEY ARE A BEGINNER OR AN EXPERIENCED RESEARCHER.

Now in a completely updated and substantially revised second edition, "Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide To British Genealogy And Family History by Mark Herber continues to be an invaluable and indispensable genealogical reference guide for novice and experienced genealogists alike whose researches require them to access the voluminous British archives of records and other published resources. Originally published in 1997 in association with the Society of Genealogists based in London, this new and expanded edition of "Ancestral Trails" provides an informed and informative guide to what records and published sources are available, how to access them, how to analyze what they archive; how to use the divers 'finding-aids' and indexes. "Ancestral Trails" also shows how to obtain and process information from living relatives, how to construct family trees, how to utilize the preserved records of birth, marriage, death, and other census data. Also covered are such sources as wills, parish records, civil and ecclesiastical court records, poll books, and property records. "Ancestral Trails" is a core addition to any professional genealogy library reference collection and a 'must' for aspiring genealogists having to deal with British source material.

Fantastic service!! I love the book! Book condition was just as described on Amazon. Would do business again in a flash!

This book is simply fantastic and it's clear the author is an absolute expert in his field. This book drastically bolstered my knowledge, interest and confidence. More importantly, I know of, and can critique numerous professional and casual methods employed when doing family history research. Reading this book feels like chatting to the ultimate 'professor' who knows everything there is to know about the subject.