How To Research Local History (2nd edition, revised)

How To Books Ltd

March 2008

ISBN: 9781845282769

Do you want to know more about the history of your street or parish, find out about the people who lived in your area and what they did, or discover more about a particular building?

You don't have to be a trained historian to research local history; all you need is an interest, an enquiring mind, an ability to keep your notes in order and perseverance to follow a trail. How To Research Local History will help get you started, how to interpret documents such as census returns, rating books and maps, and where to find them. It will introduce you to the delights of street directories and old newspapers, lead you to websites that can save you a lot of research time and talk you through how to research in archives.

Pamela Brooks, a romance novelist, journalist and local history aficionado, has spent a great deal of time in archives researching previous books,Norwich: Stories of a City and Norwich: Street by Street. Here she passes on first-hand experience, practical tips and key websites to support your research.

Reviews

From: Your Family Tree

(Jan 07 - refers to first edition of the book): A breezy but helpful tour of the sources available... frequent, useful sections on potential difficulties... succinct format packs an impressive amount in... A good, clearly written survey of the scope of local history and the countless resources that feed into it... If you like to get going with a subject quickly, this is your kind of book.

From: Cornwall FHS journal

(refers to first edition of the book): A very informative book written in an easy-to-read manner which should be invaluable to anyone interested in local history.

From: Local History magazine

(refers to first edition of the book): Full of useful information and of potential value to many experienced local history researchers.

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Available from bookshops and Amazon.co.uk