Welsh Genealogy by Bruce Durie

If, like U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, you have Welsh ancestry, you may be interested in a new book by expert genealogist Dr. Bruce Durie.Welsh Genealogy provides all of the information you could possibly need to help you to find your Welsh ancestors. It is a companion to Scottish Genealogy by the same author.

In fact, Dr. Durie has written many insightful books on the subject of genealogy. I have several of his books, and they are generally excellent. I have also had the privilege of attending a genealogy seminar held by Dr. Durie at the University of Strathclyde. It was extremely informative, and very useful in my research.

Welsh Genealogy will certainly be worth checking out if your family history extends to the beautiful land of Wales.

Books about Family Trees

I recently picked up a couple of books about family trees. These books were not offering tips and advice as many of the others in my collection do, but were instead about the personal genealogies of the authors. Neither of the books are particularly recent, but having read both I wanted to write a couple of quick reviews.

The first book is Mad Dogs and Englishmen: An Expedition Round My Family by the famous explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Actually, to give him his proper name, Sir Ranulph Twistelton-Wykham-Fiennes. My first observation of this book is that I'm not sure how much genealogical research was involved. The author quite clearly knew much of his family history prior to beginning writing. The landed classes often have very detailed and extensive family trees, as much to do with marrying into a suitable family as taking pride in the achievements of ancestors.

This is by no means a criticism of the book, the purpose of which is to tell the stories of the author's ancestors. This he does extremely well. It is remarkable how many of history's important events Sir Ranulph's ancestors have been witness to. The book is really about history rather than genealogy, it just so happens that all of the characters share a common link. To give you some idea of the content of the family tree being discusses, those characters go all the way back to Charlemagne in the ninth century.

I really enjoyed this book. It shows just how interesting family trees, and history in general, can be.

The second book I read, whilst entertaining, was not as enjoyable as the previous. It is My Family and Other Strangers: Adventures in Family History by Jeremy Hardy. This book is much more about the ins and outs of conducting family history research, and that ironically is why I didn't enjoy it as much. Jeremy Hardy is a comedian by profession, and I felt that he didn't treat the subject with the respect it deserves. Throughout the book his attitude is one of condescension, and he seems to view the research as a chore. I'm not being precious about this, he's got every right to find genealogy less interesting than I do, but it doesn't make for a particularly good book about family history.

Perhaps I'm being a little unfair, as the book is well written, and the journey to discover the author's past does make for a good narrative. I just wish he would have enjoyed that journey a bit more.

Genealogy Books

Tracing your family tree can be tricky at times, and I have always made use of many different resources to make the work easier. This was especially true when I first started my genealogical research, and was wanting to learn how to carry it out properly. As I stated in this earlier post, I learnt a lot from watching genealogy programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are?

In order to learn more I decided to purchase some genealogy books. I now have several in my collection, but the purpose of this post is to highlight a few of the ones that I have found most useful. The first book that I would like to mention is the one accompanying the programme previously mentioned, Who Do You Think You Are? It was first published in 2008 by the BBC, and written by the renowned genealogist Nick Barratt.

The book contains a huge amount of information, and as such it is extremely useful for genealogists regardless of their level of experience. It covers the basics such as vital records, but also has dedicated sections on areas of research such as military records, immigration, and criminality.

In addition to offering specific research advice, Who Do You Think You Are Encyclopedia Of Genealogy also provides fascinating historical information to put the research into context. In addition, the book caters to fans of the show by including case studies of the more interesting celebrity stories. Some of my favourites include Bill Oddie, Jeremy Clarkson, and Matthew Pinsent.

Another book which I have used extensively is Tracing Your Scottish Family History, written by Anthony Adolph and published by Collins in 2008. I found this book to be particularly useful to me due to the fact that a large part of my family tree involves Scottish ancestors. As with the WDYTYA book, this book provides information for beginners, specifically on the records which constitute the basics of family history research. Interestingly, the author devotes a section to the clear religious division in Scotland, and the relevant records to consult depending on whether your ancestors were Catholic or Protestant. There is also a section on emigration, which is useful due to the large number of people who have left Scotland over the years.

The final book that I would like to mention is The Genealogist's Internet by Peter Christian. The fourth edition was published in 2009. This book is so useful because it is a comprehensive volume of websites devoted to various aspects of genealogy. It includes websites which it would be very difficult to find otherwise. The amount of information which can be gained from using the resources in this book cannot be overstated. The nature of the book means that it can become outdated fairly quickly, so a new updated edition is due to be published in June 2012.

These are just some of the books that I have used to develop my genealogy research skills. Aside from being useful in this regard, they are also very interesting to read in terms of describing historical conditions. Genealogy is so popular that there are literally hundreds of books to choose from, and each will have something to offer you in researching your family history.