BOOKS & DIGITAL PICKS
This month’s family history inspiration
by Nat Alcock Pen & Sword, 224 pages, £14.99
BBC Two’s excellent series A House Through Time finished in February and will, no doubt, inspire many people across the country to start researching the history of their own houses. It is therefore timely that Pen & Sword (in association with The National Archives) has recently published an essential guide to a much-neglected source, vital for house historians.
Nat Alcock’s Tracing History Through Title Deeds is an updated version of his well-respected, but out-of-print, book Old Title Deeds. His updates take into consideration the massive changes in the way we research in the light of advances in computer technology and access to online catalogues.
Title deeds are a vital source, covering the medieval period through to modern times, and record details of properties and land from the largest and wealthiest of estates through to small plots held by our humbler ancestors. As such, this book is an essential guide for the family and local historian – as well as those tracing their house history.
For the genealogist, deeds often detail family relationships, providing vital information for family trees and an insight into the status and lives of our ancestors. For the house historian, deeds provide crucial evidence regarding the age, ownership and occupancy of the house, while they also add to our knowledge of local community networks and the evolution of place and field names.
Alcock looks at every aspect of title deeds, from understanding the different types of records you may find, to the language, how to locate them and the information they hold. This book is very readable with useful examples and illustrations. One small gripe – the flowcharts at the back should have been reproduced one to a page in landscape format, since they are rather small to read.
However, this book should be on the shelf of any family or local historian and, of course, anyone investigating the history of their house. It is good to have a new, updated version back in print.