Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-236) and indexes.

"The Oxford Guide to Family History is not just another guide to the mechanics of constructing a family tree. David Hey shows how to go beyond this and discover the reality of the lives of your ancestors. Who were they? Where did they live? How did they earn their living?" "Family history is a subject with broad concerns, including the origin, spread, and sometimes the decline and disappearance of families. The work of social historians is therefore of great interest, whether dealing with the size of families, the ages at which people married, or the nobility of the population. David Hey highlights those aspects of social history that are most relevant to family history research and suggests lines of enquiry that may be followed with profit and enjoyment by family historians - the past and present distribution of surnames, the stability of certain families, and the mobility of others." "Practical guidance is given on the basics of research - how to get started, where to find records - and there are many illustrations, both in colour and black and white, showing family groups, houses, monuments, archive records, and family trees. In making the fruits of the latest scholarship available to the family historian, David Hey provides an authoritative introduction to the subject as well as a stimulating guide for those wishing to proceed to a more advanced stage of research."--BOOK JACKET