Book Review: Tracing Your Family History On The Internet by Chris Paton

Many books about Internet resources don't hold well over time. I've read other books that were published around the same time as this one (2011) and have found that many of the resources they point the reader to have vanished.

However, Chris Paton has compiled a book of resources and the vast majority of them are still online today. This shows me that it wasn't random searches that led to the inclusion of the websites in the book, but a good personal knowledge of the online genealogical landscape.

The book begins with a chapter on Gateways and Institutions - sites that cover national and local archives, as well as vendors such as Ancestry and Findmypast.

We then move on to Genealogical Essentials - the websites that are fundamental to anyone researching their family tree. From buying and sharing BMD certificates to gazetteers and heritage websites. Personally, I found the bulk of most helpful sites in this chapter.

The third chapter is entitled Occupational Records and includes things like Workers' rights, The Church, The Law and Business. I'll probably revisit this chapter when I delve more into the English side of my family.

The we move on to chapters with resources specific to each country the book deals with. Chapters on England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland also drill down to the country level. Before advancing to resources about Crown Dependencies and Empire and Migration.

The book closes with a short chapter on Social Networking - which I think is an important subject to cover. I find a lot of information whether general to genealogy or by specifically asking questions in Facebook groups and Twitter!

The book is written well and therefore easy to read, with web links emboldened and therefore easy to pick out from the descriptive text. There are a few screenshots scattered around to break up the text, but just be aware that over time the designs of the websites are likely to change - which is probably why only a few are provided and they tend to show the types of information that can be gleaned from the site shown.

This is a really interesting and well designed book. I found few new resources to add to my favourites list and where I found resources I already had; it made me feel more confident that I'm on the right track. The book also (inadvertently) prompted me to tidy up my bookmarks - something I've been meaning to do for some time!