Local history

A few hints

There are a great many books available giving details of how to go about researching local history – take a look at your local library

If you are just beginning to take an interest in local history – or even just tracing the history of your house – this Foldout gives a few basic tips to get you started

• Decide the topic which you want to pursue

  This might be something like ...

  • The history of your house

  • The history of your village

  • The Luddites

  • The Coiners

  • The Fielden family

  • Health and hygiene in Todmorden

  • Local town halls

  • Local church architecture

  • The Quakers in Luddenden

  Don't choose too large a subject, and don't be too vague or ill-defined as this could waste a lot of time – the subject will broaden by itself

• Books: There are a great many books on local history. Some of these are listed in the Foldout.

  Take a look at your local library

  Look in the local history section of your bookshop – Just Books and Fred Wade's Bookshop are worth visiting

• Visit the West Yorkshire Archives and the Weaver to Web website

• Visit the Halifax Reference Library

• Read the local history articles in the local newspapers

• Subscribe to one of the local history magazines

• Send a letter with your questions to a local newspaper or a local history magazine

• Join a local history society

• Find an evening class on local history at the local education centre

• Use the Internet to search for information on the specific topics of your study

  When you search, look for topics around your subject. For example, if you are studying a particular church, look for information on

  • Other churches in the area

  • Religion in the district

  • Benefactors who supported the local churches

  • Those who were baptised, married and buried there

  • The political and social climate at the time that the church was built

• If it's your house, look at the deeds for the property.

  Make a note of past owners and follow up their lives and their interest in the property

• If it's your church, look at the baptismal, burial and other records for the place.

  Make a note of past vicars and follow up their lives

.. and please, don't expect me or anyone else to do the work for you ... unless you are prepared to pay a lot of money.

Note especially that – even thought I wish that I had the time to do so – I am unable to conduct research, to pop into Halifax Reference Library, or to photocopy some local resource, on behalf of readers.

When you do seek help from anyone, remember

• Tell them where you live – if you live in Australia, the resources are different from those available to you if you live in Halifax

• Tell them what you know already – it's rather discouraging for your researcher to go to a lot of trouble only to be told

  Oh yes, I knew that already

• It's your family history, not theirs – so don't expect them to get as obsessed or as involved as you are about your gt-gt-gt-grandfather

You might like to take a look at my Hints on researching family history and the entries for

Archiving your material Borthwick Institute for Archives Conservation of documents John Crabtree GENUKI Lesley Goldthorp Samuel Greenwood Hellowell The Heritage Business Historical Directories Images of England website Local Newspapers & Events Index [1830s-1950s] National Heritage List for England (NHLE)

Oral history People's History Museum Power in the Landscape Railway Genealogy ROOTSCHAT.COM Routes to Roots Todmorden & Walsden Website Todmorden History Website James Walton Rev John Watson Weaver to Web WHARFEGEN Yorkshire Ancestors.com

Page Ref: HINTSLH

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