Description: Written by a professional genealogist, the book is an extensive tool for researchers, genealogy or history, of burial places focusing on England and Wales with a wider study of burial locations. Explanations about the differences between a burial ground, cemetery, graveyard & churchyard. How to find burial records hardcopy & online. Tons of information. Even how to clean a gravestone and when not to.
Reviews:
The synopsis of the book calls it “a comprehensive and fascinating guide” and that is correct. This research-assist book is packed, and I mean packed, with information. And while it focuses on England and Wales burials, there is important information for the American researcher. Read the original synopsis. This book delivers on all points.
Example: I have Quaker ancestors that arrived very early in Colonial America. The writer explains that early Quaker burials had no gravestones as that was regarded as vanity. Thus grave mounds were relied upon for grave locations. A “rule” was the burial yards of the Quakers should not be leveled and graves should be laid in “orderly rows”. That was the tip of the iceberg re information on the Quakers and their burials. And so my mind wonders — did some of these Quaker burial practices carry over to America?
Case Studies are used throughout to illustrate how the explanations are used in “real” research.
The section on to clean or not clean gravestones was the most comprehensive I have personally seen. How oblique light can greatly aid reading a dim stone. Another section is how to Carry Out a Churchyard Survey. Another is not only a Listing of Useful Websites but also how to effectively use the sites.
Included are End Notes, Bibliography, and Index. Cemeteries and Graveyards is definitely a book to have on your shelf if you are an England/Wales history buff OR a genealogy nut, like me.
The publisher has produced all the Tracing Your ____ Ancestors. I have several of those on my genealogy research shelves. Yes, I recommend and would consider a must for those researching burials in England and/or Wales.
I received a complimentary e-ARC copy of Cemeteries and Graveyards: A Guide for Local and Family Historians in England and Wales via NetGalley from the publisher, Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword Family History. A positive review was not required; the opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
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