Another flying visit to England ....
As usual I went to the (Bedford) library and this time I found this book:
How to write a family history
by Terrick V. H. Fitzhugh
UK Library number 929.3 FIT
Lot's of ideas on what to include, and where to find it !!
I only browsed through it, but even if you only find one or two tips for yourselves, it's a useful book.
Also found a nice cartoon in the book:
Topic: "The enumerator's lot was not a happy one ...."
http : //www . rootschat . com/forum/index.php/topic,85997.0.html
Return visit, had an hour to spare and found this book .... which I then discoverd I had seen 6 years ago
Then as now, very impressed with it.
In the introduction author explains how he has abandoned the "Total Descent" research as mere "Ancestor Spotting".
What you can usually find is the "when and where" but not the "how and why".
His book describes ways of finding out more about the "how and why".
Among the chapters there are
- the Ancestor as a private person (wills, diaries)
- the Ancestor as breadwinner (occupational records)
- the Ancestor as householder (property deeds and related documents)
- the Ancestor as Public Person (books, newspaper reports, etc.)
- the Ancestor among his contempories (in context of his times)
- the Ancestor as expatriate (if he worked abroad, emigrated, etc)
- the Ancestor as litigant (court and legal records)
- the Ancestor as armiger (entitled to bear heraldic arms)
and gives details on what sort of documents could be found to describe more about each of these aspects.
Also included is advice on how to go about writing the narrative, with sample chapters how it could look.
And a chapter on possibilities raised by the internet.
All in all, if you want to write up your research, or
if you just want to put "flesh on the bones"
this gives you a lot of good tips about how to go about it.
With luck, next time I'm in Bedford I can read a bit more
Bob
