Time Traveller's Handbook: A Guide to the Past

by Althea Douglas

Do you know how long it took to sail across the Atlantic Ocean? Was it faster from east to west or west to east? Imagine sailing to India, a five-month trip around the Cape of Good Hope! No wonder late Victorians valued the steamship and the Suez Canal. What difference did the inventions of the telephone or steam engine make to our ancestors lives? Do you know what a rod or a chain is and what they measured? Time Travellers Handbook considers documents and how to look at papers and artifacts that have survived over the years, as well as those family legends and mythinformation handed down by word of mouth. This sort of information can be found on the Internet somewhere but the researcher can waste a lot of time hunting for it. In an entertaining yet useful manner, Time Travellers Handbook brings together for family historians a lot of facts our ancestors once knew, took for granted, and used regularly.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

341 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2011

Reviews

[Brian Greiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful and fascinating book. It is aimed at genealogy buffs but should be of interest to writers and readers of historical fiction. It not only defines terms and social conventions, but also puts them into historical context.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair review on my genealogy blog.

I had the pleasure of reading a great reference book entitled Time Traveller’s Handbook: A Guide to the Past, by Althea Douglas. Although the book is written for the genealogist or historian researching in Canada, there is plenty of useful information for researchers without Canadian roots.

The book is well-written, sourced where appropriate, and makes for an easy read. There are 16 chapters with historical facts galore, an appendix of historical dates and events, and a comprehensive index. A bibliography is also provided that lists the many sources referred to in the text.

Many of the chapters include lists of terms and definitions or other helpful tables (e.g., measurement conversions). Douglas also uses various anecdotes to illustrate certain facts, providing the reader with a better context of life back in the day in a more tangible way.

Chapter 8 “Trades and Their Tools” is a fascinating chapter. Did you know that a plumber in the early days was something much different than what we know one to be today? Want to know what a currier is? Did you know that a butcher may have also been called a flesher? I was very happy to see a definition for a cooper. I remember a few years ago searching the internet for a definition and it took several sources to finally find the answer, which wasn’t really much help. This book not only had a definition, but one that gave me a better picture of the trade.

Chapter 9 “Work Away From Home” is also an informative chapter, especially the discussion of rail workers. Chapter 13 “Health in the Past” is also a very helpful chapter and includes a list of common ailments with definitions.

While the book is a great reference to the past, it’s also good to read it from cover to cover. There were many pieces of information contained in the text that I had never even thought of before as being relevant to genealogy. But these tidbits got me thinking, and because of that, I have revised some of my research plans to include other avenues of research.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed some of this knowing that I will be keeping it handy on my genealogy reference shelves for the future.