31 October 2011

The top family history and genealogy books in the UK

Here, as of 29 October according to amazon.co.uk, are the most popular family history books they sell along with summary comments from the posted customer reviews.

1. Writing Up Your Family History: A Do-it-yourself Guide (Genealogy) by John Titford (Paperback - 20 Nov 2003)
Comments: Helpful, does what it says on the cover, Not much more than what you can find on the web, Best Book I've read on this topic.
2. Track Down Your Ancestors: How to Research Your Family History Using Archives and the Internet by Estelle Catlett(Paperback - 26 Jun 2008)
Comments: THE book to have and to learn from as a complete novice; An excellent book; well worth the purchase price; very poor with little information contained in it; the best book I have ever read for a new family history researcher.
3. Madresfield: One house, one family, one thousand years by Jane Mulvagh (Paperback - 26 Feb 2009) 
Note: This title is fiction, "a thrillingly vivid historical portrait"4. Family Photographs and How to Date Them (Family History)by Jayne Shrimpton (Paperback - 15 May 2008)
Comments: great help in dating miscellaneous photos; a must for the amateur genelogist; very good book if a bit pricey,5. Family and Kinship in England, 1450-1800 (Seminar Studies In History) by Will Coster (Paperback - 30 Oct 2001)
Comments: well constructed and would appeal to the general reader as well as professional historians and academics.

For genealogy most of the top five are baby name books. Just creeping in at number five is:
Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy: The definitive reference guide to tracing your family historyby Nick Barratt (Hardcover - 1 Sep 2008)
Comments: A huge help with family history; a recommended read and resource; my new bible; sometimes skims over the trickier details of subjects,

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

John the right side of the post is missing.