However, I needn't have worried because the contents of this book are fairly basic, although it's still worth a read for beginners, such as myself.
The book follows the 'brick wall' analogy that anyone who's spent time researching ancestors will come across. Using this analogy we're given a method for examining each brick wall in detail, including creating timelines. The rest of the book looks at different ways of advancing past the brick wall using the following terms: Brute force, go around the wall, talk to a friend, use crowdsourcing, technological solutions, hire a demolition expert, and rest up and attack the brick wall another time. The book closes with a chapter on putting these techniques to work and ensuring your keep a research log to avoid re-researching the same things and sources multiple times.
While this book is good for beginners, it's unlikely to introduce new ideas to people who have been researching for a while. Where the book excels, is the use of 3 or 4 examples of using each technique from the personal experiences of the authors. It's great to read these examples and see situations where the techniques have worked and where they might work in the readers brick walls.
The book is very readable and terms are defined well. This is a short book, which would have been much shorter if not for the many screenshots of website homepages - while this may be handy for the next year or two, websites change, so this book is likely to age quickly. There are, however, a good range of resources discussed, with sources at the end of each chapter.
As the authors recognise, there is no dividing line between research techniques that are basic ad advanced. I feel that any technique can be utilised to gather the bare minimum or a wealth of information. All in all, a good read and may introduce newbies to new avenues of research.
