Using Gravestones to Trace Your Ancestors is a well written and accessible guide for family historians with emphasis on graveyards and attendant records and with a focus on the British Isles. Due out 30th May 2025 from Pen & Sword, it's 152 pages and will be available in paperback formats.

This book, by Amanda Leedham, is one of a group of books published by Pen & Sword aimed at laymen genealogists researching their family background. The information is arranged logically and finding the relevant info the reader is seeking is straightforward. The themes cover a wide variety of topics and include winnowing sources and just getting started, accessing (and understanding) records, additional resources, symbology, different types of gravestones, official records and resources, and more. The author has included many black and white photographs, facsimile and historical records to help.

This is a very well done and practical treatise on how to get started doing family research and how to carry on; which resources are likely to reward the effort and how to make use of uncovered information. The writing is layman accessible, but it's also well annotated and the bibliography and chapter notes will provide readers with a number of further options to explore.

Four stars. This would make a superlative selection for library acquisition, home use, or as a gift to a history interested friend or relative.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

If you are based in the UK and are one for ancestry and family history, then this one is for you.

It teaches you how to decipher the information that is displayed on headstones, whether that be symbols, pictures, dates and names and in learning this, it can help guide you in the right direction for following the path of your ancestors.

Because it’s was UK based, as an Australian there were just some things that I wasn’t able to relate too, this mainly being to Australia being a “younger country”. But it is still a great resource.

I did find the discussion of coffin collars and iron mortsafe quite interesting and it definitely left me thinking about what I would want my headstone would say and how I would be remembered by those I leave behind.

Thank-you NetGalley, Pen & Sword and Amanda for a Digital Advanced Readers Copy, in exchange for an honest review.

This one one a good reminder of how you can use gravestone to trace your ancestors however it shouldn't be your only source.

This is a fantastic addition to any family historian’s resource shelf. Thoughtfully laid out and well researched.