I was hoping Tracing Your Ancestors Using the UK Historical Timeline: A Guide for Family Historians would provide some background or assistance in researching ancestry in the United Kingdom.

But it is as advertised: a timeline. Major socio-political events from the tenth century CE to the present are listed. The authors do point out when various forms of genealogical data begin to become available from various lists and whatnot.

A couple of things stood out to me regarding the timeline. First and foremost is how little information there would be about most people until only quite recently; not much data was kept on people, and almost nothing except for the landed gentry before 1500. Watching the population numbers go up in the late medieval period, crash with the Black Death, and only really recover in the late 17th/early 18th century, and then the population explosion until the present day was quite something.

If you are looking for a handy timeline of events, this may be of benefit to you.

An historical timeline that can be used to give you an understanding of where and when your ancestors”fit” into UK history. Interesting to read as a stand-alone history book, and a source of reference if you want to quiz others.

Tracing Your Ancestors Using the UK Historical Timeline by Angela Smith and Neill Bertram could become an invaluable resource for dating events in the life of your British ancestors. It starts in the early 1000s and stretches to the present day with an extensive index at the back. It cites laws, wars, government activity and so much more that it is not worth it to list them all. In many cases there are resources for further investigation. Not only could it be used for family history, but also as a research tool for a course in history, for example. It is thorough and comprehensive. A better resource cannot be found in one place.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Tracing Your Ancestors by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #tracingyourancestors

This book offers plenty of insight for geanologists. The timeline is helpful and interesting for anyone who is remotely interested in history. It made me want to go away and do so much more of my own research about various historical events and has made me even more interested in migration and politicak history.

5 stars, Genealogical Resource

TRACING YOUR ANCESTORS USING THE UK HISTORICAL TIMELINE
by Angela Smith & Neil Bertram

This is a helpful genealogical resource, helpful for anyone interested in tracing their roots. As far as I can tell, every single family line that I've researched came through the UK, either living there for a few generations or using it as a stepping stone to get to the USA, eventually. You can trace your ancestors backward, from yourself and find where your family originated.

The book has a timeline guide from 1066 to 2020, to help you track down those elusive ancestors. Highly recommend it. A wealth of information for a fledgling genealogist or an expert.

Warmest thanks to #netgalley #penandsword #penandswordfamilyhistory for the complimentary copy of #tracingyourancestorsusingtheukhistoricaltimeline I was under no obligation to post a review.

My thanks to NetGalley and Pen and Sword for a copy of “ Tracing Your Ancestors Using The Uk Historical Timeline “ for an honest review.

I eagerly look forward to any new Pen and Sword publications as I know how beneficial they have been to my family history research. Even as someone who has been compiling their family tree for a while now I seem to find something of use in every new publication .
This book is different from others I’ve read , as it has listings of years and notable things to have happened then., Although interesting to read anyway I feel it’s more beneficial as a reference guide , helping you to see what was happening at the time our ancestors were alive , helping to flesh out the bones of our family tree.
I’m sure this will be a guide I’ll refer to a lot during my research .

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I have been trying to piece together my family’s history. This books is going to help me a lot in the upcoming months.

A helpful book for beginners and experts alike. When you begin your genealogy journey it's easy to focus on names and census returns, but the real understanding of our ancestors comes from asking what was happening in the world at the time they lived. What wars they would have been talking about with the neighbours, what inventions they might have witnessed, what great world events shocked and inspired them.

A must-have for anyone who wants to add more depth and emotional context to their research.

Tracing your Ancestors using the UK Historical Timeline: A Guide for Family Historians by Neil Bertram, Angela Smith was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. This book is a historical timeline if events that happened, based on events that happened in the United Kingdom. The historian can then use these events to judge what year events found while researching family trees happened. The book covers events from the 1100’s to modern times. If you or a student need a historical timeline, handy in one place, you could not go wrong with this book on the bookshelf for many generations to come.

4 stars

This is a useful guide to significant historical events in UK history and any corresponding genealogical resources Each page in this book has a main column with facts of genealogical relevance in the broadest sense; a side column makes mention of events of socio-cultural significance and events relating to the monarchy, the State and the Church.
Due to the layout, I would recommend a printed copy, as it did not seem as accessible on the Kindle.

The timeline is especially strong on the contribution of migration, extreme weather, disasters, epidemics, wars, non-conformist religions, taxation, transport, the armed services, famine, empire, organised labour, social writers, mapmakers, political unrest and scientific advances.

Mentions of long forgotten incidents (e.g. The Andover Workhouse Scandal) lead to fascinating trips down the Wikipedia rabbit hole!
It includes less well-known incidents, such as a large-scale emigration from Scotland to Ireland in 1695, following a famine in Scotland. This may remove a long existing brick wall, between my known family and the direction DNA testing points.

I am happy to recommend this useful and interesting book to all genealogists.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. All views expressed are my own.