Ancestors in the Attic: Making Family Memorabilia into History

A guide to a fantastic and often overlooked resource to learning more about ancestors' everyday lives

Much family history focuses on digging around archives and web searches, but this book shows that attics and closets can often hide a treasure trove of personal documents and ephemera. Boxes full of photographs, hastily written notes, old tickets, postcards, ration books, a soldier's hat, a bundle of letters, perhaps a diary, are all invaluable sources of information about family history. These are crucial in piecing together the everyday lives of one's ancestors, exposing secrets, and family relationships. Family historians might discover favorite family recipes, information about their schooldays, reconstruct a Victorian family holiday. This book guides readers through 200 years of different types of memorabilia: how to interpret them and how to use them to make one's own family history, perhaps making a scrapbook or website.