Tracing Your Canal Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians

Sue Wilkes

Dec 2011 · Casemate Publishers

About this ebook

Britains industrial revolution depended on canals for the cheap movement of materials and goods until the coming of the railways. Canal companies struggled to compete and went into a long decline, but much of the canal network is still with us today, and interest in the history and heritage of canals - and those who worked on them - is strong. That is why Sue Wilkess well researched and highly readable handbook on the subject is so valuable.She concentrates on the people who lived and worked on the waterways the canal boatmen, their families and their way of life - and those who depended on the canal trade for a living the lock-keepers, toll collectors, and canal company clerks. She provides a thorough, practical guide to the sources the archives, books, websites, societies available for researchers if they are studying our inland waterways, or trying to find out about an ancestor who worked on the canals or was connected with them.Her book is essential reading for anyone interested in this aspect of the industrial past.

About the author

Sue Wilkes is an established expert on regional, local and industrial history, and she is a well-known family historian. In addition to contributing many articles to history and family history magazines, including Who Do You Think You Are? and Family Tree. She is the author of Regency Spies, A Visitors Guide To Jane Austen's England, The Children History Forgot, Narrow Windows, Narrow Lives, Regency Cheshire, Tracing Your Canal Ancestors, Tracing Your Lancashire Ancestors and Tracing Your Ancestors' Childhood.