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In a companion volume to the author's previous book, Medieval Genealogy, Early Modern Genealogy focuses on the centuries between the arcane medieval period and the Victorian era, when the nature of many records was changed by new laws and organisations. It is a vital aid to accessing the sketchy parish records kept during the Civil War and pre-Victorian records, when the huge growth in towns, the stirrings of the Industrial Revolution :and the rise of the middle classes changed the face of society.

One class of records - manorial court records - provided Paul Chambers with some interesting facts about his ancestors. An October 1661 court roll from Swaffham Prior Manor (Cambridgeshire) records the death of George Chambers and gives details of his will and beneficiaries. A 1772 entry reveals that George Chambers the younger was fined for `uttering twelve profanities'. With such a wealth of information - including glimpses into the lives, financial details and landholdings of our ancestors - to be gleaned from such documents, more people are discovering that it is possible to trace their family tree, not just back a few generations, but back to Stuart times.

Paul Chambers provides a detailed and easy-to-follow guide to all kinds of genealogical material from wills, deeds, assize records and funeral monuments to church records, military lists, criminal registers, immigration records, taxation documents (covering a host of eighteenth-century taxes including those on horses, female servants and hair powder) and occupational records from apothecaries to watermen.

Well illustrated with examples of documents and contemporary maps, Early Modern Genealogy is the guide to genealogy from 1600 to 1838. This is a book for both beginners and those with experience - an important addition to any genealogists' library.