Discover Your Ancestors
Issue 029
Welcome again to Discover Your Ancestors Periodical, your monthly feast of social history and family history research advice.
Historical research is about both the general and the particular. There are the great sweeping arcs of history – the Industrial Revolution, say, or the common patterns of birth, marriage and death. But there are also tiny details which can illuminate life in the past.
Thus Mel Jones’s careful analysis in this issue of a late 17th century probate inventory for a Yorkshire farmer turns out to reveal huge amounts of fascinating detail, giving us a remarkable insight into rural life in the past – and so back to the general again.
As usual, there’s plenty more crammed into our pages: a stroll through the history of public museums; a handy guide to PCC wills; details of an interesting research project in Glasgow to research the family histories of people who donated paintings to the city’s museums and galleries; and plenty more besides.
I hope you enjoy another voyage into the past with us.
Andrew Chapman, Editor.