Readership: All those engaged in genealogical research, including everyone seeking to discover the histories of their names and families
George Redmonds, freelance historian, Turi King, University of Leicester, and David Hey, University of Sheffield (Emeritus)
George Redmonds is a freelance historian, specialising in Names Studies and Local History. He has lectured widely in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand and in 2001 presented the BBC Radio 4 series 'Surnames, Genes and Genealogy'. His numerous books include Surnames and Genealogy (1997) and Names and History (2004).
Turi King read Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge before undertaking her MSc and PhD in genetics at the University of Leicester. For the past ten years her research has focused on the link between surnames and genetics and its applications in the fields of forensics, epidemiology, genealogy and population history.
David Hey is Emeritus Professor of Local and Family History at the University of Sheffield. He is President of the British Association for Local History and the Chairman of the British Record Society. His numerous books include The Oxford Companion to Family and Local History ( third edition, 2008).
"An excellent book, for its clarity, up-to-dateness, and coverage of all the important aspects of genetic genealogy, with many interesting and useful details not given in other books." - Genetic Genealogy
"they enjoyably demonstrate how ancestral links may be explored." - Family History Monthly
"it provides exciting clues about how recent developments in DNA analysis are shaping genealogical research" - Who Do You Think You Are?
"Enthralling and compulsively readable, this book combines linguistics with genetics, genealogy, and local history to provide a fresh and eye-opening vision of the British past - and indeed of family histories across a wider world. Focusing on the history of British surnames it casts a totally new light on what makes us who we are - and how we can find out. Indispensable reading for anyone interested in their roots, this book offers nothing less than a new perspective on British history." - Michael Wood, historian and broadcaster
"This book will come to be seen as an important progenitor of a new historical subdiscipline, a ground-breaking interdisciplinary liaison, between history and genetics, one that may eclipse the boldness of any such humanities scientific collaboration hitherto." - Professor Keith Snell, Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature
Introduction 1: By-names 2: Hereditary Surnames 3: Expansion and Decline 4: Distribution and Migration 5: Linguistic and Social Factors 6: Meaning and Method 7: DNA and Surnames 8: The Link Between Surname and Y Chromosome Type 9: The Wider Picture Conclusion Bibliography Index of Names General Index
