ABSTRACT
The more the family historian becomes aware of national trends and regional characteristics the more absorbing he will find his ancestors' story. A broader range of knowledge will help to explain the environment in which they lived and the circumstances in which they found themselves. It will often provide a clue as to why they prospered at one particular period and fell upon hard times at another, why they decided to move home or why they stayed put for generation after generation. And at the same time the personal histories of one's ancestors will illuminate historical periods and episodes that have previously been dark to us, while contrasting fortunes will enable us to look upon the great issues of social history with a certain detachment, free from the prejudices of class and the blinkered outlook of those who seek from history merely the confirmation of their own attitudes. Family history often allows us to see both sides of the coin, especially if we adopt the broad approach of finding out who our sixteen great-great-grandparents were. My mother's father's family were prosperous farmers in the northern Vale of York; my father's mother's family were farm labourers from the border country where Somerset meets Devon and Dorset until they decided to tear up their roots and leave the wretched poverty of this beautiful but depressed part of England to go in search of work in the industrial North. Explaining how I traced these ancestors may help those readers who have not yet pursued their own lines of enquiry and will highlight some of the problems that we all have to face. It will also enable me to show how an interest in family history can be widened into the even more rewarding study of the local history of the places where one's ancestors lived.
