The Local Historian Volume 14 Number 5 February 1981

By Elizabeth Simpson

Review of recent developments in family history, noting that the name first appeared in The Local Historian in 1977 and that since that date there has been very rapid progress and expansion in the subject. Simpson describes the characteristic membership of family history societies and the way in which family historians perceive their research and derive satisfaction from it. She also considers the developing relationships between family history and local history, and the links which are being forged with other type of organisation. Finally, she pleads that different kinds of historian should recognise the potential of each other, rather than being confined to compartments - 'a polite recognition of each other will do for a start'.

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By Roy Workman

The author's experiences and conclusions drawn from the detailed analysis of the tithe map of Hawstead, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. He covers the following major topics: i) parish boundaries; ii) practical methods of recording information; iii) the patterns of ownership of land and the specific problems associated with patterns of occupation - including the difficulties inherent in farms or estates which extend across parish boundaries; iv) the use of the figures for rent charges; v) organising the data using card indexes; vi) analysis of size data; vii) analysis of the shape and patterns of fields; viii) field names; and ix) correlating field name evidence with other sources.

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By Graham Davis

Detailed discussion of the sources, methods and statistical techniques for the demographic analysis of communities in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The article begins with an explanation of the key sources of data, together with their potential or actual weaknesses, and then considers the specific problem of under-recording and under-enumeration of populations. The following major themes are then described, with procedures explained: i) measurement of birth rates; ii) burial rates; iii) out- and in-migration; iv) destination of migrants; and v) natural increase in relation to migration levels.

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By Tim Gay

Note about the survival of forms of counting in areas such as the Yorkshire Dales, Cumbria, Wiltshire and lowland Scotland, and their possible relationship with the Celtic numerals in Welsh and Cornish. The supposition that this might represent the long-standing survival of Celtic populations in these areas is considered.

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By John R. Alban

Report on the origins and development of an oral history project in Swansea, which began in 1975 and was operated by the university and the city record office. The article describes the methodology which lay behind the project, including the historical rationale, and then discusses the practical procedures which the recording group adopted. The importance of background and contextual research, and of the preparation for visits to interviewees, is given considerable attention, and the article concludes with a brief note of the potential for continuing and further developing of the project.