Description

Maps are literally a window into the past for both family and local historians. Maps are an essential tool in the search for places connected with the lives of our ancestors, helping us to make sense of how and where they lived.

Charles Masters, Countryside Books, 2009, B5, 127pp, ISBN 9781846740985

This well illustrated book of maps and plans has chapters about county maps, estate surveys, enclosure maps and awards, town maps, tythe maps and awards, the Valuation Office Survey (1910-15) and the National Farm Survey (1941-43). The maps, which are coloured, each have a detailed explanation of their title and date, and their source. The main text has marginal subheadings relating to the contents of that section plus text boxes to provide additional gems of information. Among the many listed in the acknowledgements is our own editor, Penny Stokes, for her expertise in Hampstead Marshall. Maps, when used with civil registration records or census returns, can add a new dimension to your research and to the area your ancestor lived and worked in. This makes it a recommended book for all family historians.

Jean Debney