Tracing Your Ancestors Using What They Left Behind (Paperback)

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Rating: 5 out of 5 stars


I don’t usually give five stars on a first read, but this book deserves them for something quite rare: the way it makes you pay attention.

Before starting, my feeling was that I was about to read a guide, almost a manual. But no. That’s where its beauty lies: in how a quiet guiding voice begins to tell lives, showing you that objects speak, that they hold stories, connections, and memories. You’re reading someone who knows, teaches, enjoys what he does… and, in doing so, makes you enjoy it and learn without even noticing.

NetGalley, Giggy Fountain

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Tracing Your Ancestors Using What They Left Behind by genealogist Simon Wills is a spellbinding Nonfiction book about decoding the mysteries behind our possessions and objects. The topic excites me as I have multiple "finds" such as a book signed by a certain princess in 1951, a dusty box filled with Anthony Trollope books hidden at a used book sale, early photographs with inscriptions, a period newspaper clipping about Thomas Hardy, and many antiques with unknown provenance. After poring over this wonderful book, I am better equipped to research my curious belongings. How thrilling to ponder where these objects have been and whose hands have touched them.

Wills discusses the delight of detection and offers readers invaluable resources to begin the search. The objects he discusses include a Church Service book, photographs, war and other medals, Captain Wills (!) tobacco jar, and travel journal. History and context are explained such as the Messina earthquake, Queen Victoria's family dynamics, war censors, and the use of pencils versus pens.

Additionally, Wills suggests checking data wherever possible, tracing ancestry, researching daily life in that particular era for clues, and trying to copy indecipherable text by hand to aid in identification. He includes photographs which really lend a personal touch and ramps up my curiosity even further. What a marvellous book, precisely what I craved without realizing it!

NetGalley, Brenda Carleton

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

As ever with a Pen and Sword publications Tracing Your Ancestors Using What They Left Behind is well presented and informative. Their wide ranging titles on tracing your family history will help you on your way or enable you to over come that brick wall. This is one of vast range of titles that will help any family history researcher or just help broaden your knowledge of the social, cultural and political time your ancestors lived in.

NetGalley, Cath P