Whether you are curious to know what your village, town, or county was like many years ago, or have an overiding desire to uncover the everyday lives of your ancestors - this is the perfect book - an unrivalled new guide to investigating how we used to live. The last thirty years have seen a huge growth of interest in local and family history both as a subject for the general enthusiast and as an area of academic study. With over 2,000 entries The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History caters admirably for this growing popularity by providing detailed summaries of the latest knowledge in such fields as social, urban, agricultural, legal, family, and ecclesiastical history. It gives guidance on where to find and how to use documentary sources, suggests books and journals to help the reader in further research, and includes entries which explain terms which may puzzle beginners in the field. Covering a broad canvas, from prehistory to the present day, taking in the whole of the British Isles, the Companion paints a thorough picture of rural and urban life . There are entries on everything from bear-baiting and Morris dancing to aerial photography and the use of computers. Individuals included range from writers, historians, and social commentators to landscape designers and antiquarians (Thomas Hardy, Richard Jefferies, Samuel Pepys, `Capability' Brown, etc.), whilst institutions and organizations ( HMSO, Armed Forces, trades unions, Inns of Court, etc.) are all fully covered. Cells and cellars combine with entries on cider and cinemas, foxhunting and framework knitting, to provide a invaluable compendium of information and advice for both the amateur and profesional researcher, and a fascinating introduction to the subject for the general reader.