This is a book designed to take the newcomer to family history beyond the bounds of their computer screen.

Federation of Family History Societies

If you have a brick wall on your family tree, it is well worth checking out this book, it is not a dry reference book, but is very readable, and one of the many scenarios covered may just suggest a resolution to that nagging problem.

Kent Family History Society

Are you thinking of tracing your family tree? This book offers an ideal place to start, suggesting valuable techniques on how to explore family stories and tricks to separate truth from fiction. Symes also offers a guide to the best online and printed sources to further research.

History Revealed, September 2016

... This makes for a refreshing approach to family history, suitable for an imaginative beginner or a seasoned researcher alike. Symes tells 12 varied stories, all taken from her research into her own roots, which gives a personal feel while remaining of wide general interest. Along the way we meet shop workers, migrants, domestic servants and more - all just the sort of ancestors any of us might have had.

Read it for: A rewarding, different angle on using classic records to reveal ancestors' stories.

Your Family History, August 2016

Overall, this is a book that can help the researcher think a bit more about how to utilise newspapers in their research, and the most effective ways of doing so.

Your Family History July 2016

Ruth's book gets to the glorious core of what family history research is all about, so sit down and enjoy the read for pleasure or pick out nuggets of wisdom to provide a framework for pursuing your own family discoveries.

Family Tree Magazine August 2016

The intriguing characters in these real family history mysteries include an agricultural labourer who left secrets behind in Somerset when he migrated to Manchester, a working-class woman who bafflingly lost ten of her fourteen children in infancy, a miner who purportedly went to live with the Red Indians and a merchant prince of the Empire who was rumoured to have two wives. This book shows how a variety of sources including birth, marriage and death certificates, censuses, newspaper reports, passports, recipe books, trade directories, diaries and passenger lists were all used to uncover more, and how much can be detected by setting the characters from your family tree in their proper historical backgrounds. This book is an updated edition of Ruth Symes previous book, titled Stories From Your Family Tree: Researching Ancestors Within Living Memory (2008).

The sources that Ruth describes in this superb genealogical book might be family possessions handed down from generation to generation, something that, if it did happen in my family, saw another branch of the family get these treasures, with said family member uninterested in tracing the mysteries of his or her family. It's true that it has only been during the last five years or so that my wife and I have started our own investigations, but that's beside the point. It is often Lady Luck who decides where the family's documentation ends up, but although I can't think of anyone who in my family who would have access to the types of material she describes, nevertheless her book is extremely valuable in giving pointers to people attempting to fill in the blanks in their family mysteries and their family trees. A hugely enjoyable book in the Pen and Sword Genealogy series.

Books Monthly

As featured in.

Family Tree Magazine July 2016

I really do recommend that you read this book - the specific stories and individual circumstances of your family will, of course, be different, but as a guide to approaching family history in a fresh and stimulating way, it is outstanding and fascinating.

Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine July 2016

As featured in.

Family Tree June 2016