Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors

Chris Paton • £14.99
pen-and-sword.co.uk

Straddling parts of Counties Antrim and Down, the city of Belfast has seen its fair share of history across the centuries. From its humble beginnings as a ford based settlement between two tributaries of the River Lagan, it grew following its grant of a charter in 1613 to become a corporation town, and expanded dramatically when later made a city in 1888. Along the way it has experienced the darkest of times, including the Belfast Blitz and the recent Troubles, to some of the most enlightened developments across Ireland and the UK.

In Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, genealogist and DYA contributor Chris Paton returns home to provide a research gateway for those wishing to trace their ancestors from the Northern Irish capital. With a concise summary of the city’s history, a tour of some of the city’s most amazing archives, libraries and museums, and a detailed overview of the records generated by those who came before, he expertly steers the reader towards centuries of ancestral exploration, both through online resources and within the city of Belfast itself – and with a wee bit of craic along the way.

The Yorkshire Coiners: The True Story of the Cragg Vale Gang

Steve Hartley • £16.99
amberley-books.com

In late 18th-century Yorkshire a powerful gang of counterfeiters held the local community in its spell. In a remote valley near Halifax called Cragg Vale, gold coins of the realm were clipped and filed, then returned to circulation, while the extra metal collected was melted down to produce new counterfeit currency. The crime was punishable by death, and violence and vengeance, even murder, was meted out against those who got in their way. The Cragg Vale Coiners were highly organised, enlisting the help of many in the local community, and local authorities were powerless to stop them. The threat posed by the gang was debated in Parliament and the government had to do something to prevent the Exchequer being defrauded of millions of pounds and the nation’s currency being debased, so it was forced to despatch high-ranking officials of the Royal Mint in an attempt to bring the gang to justice and the ringleaders to the gibbet. The ensuing hunt for the gang members was bitter and the story of the outcome has become the stuff of legends.

Steve Hartley has been researching the true story of the Cragg Vale Coiners for many years. sparked by the knowledge that he is a direct descendant of the gang leader ‘King David’ Hartley.

The General Strike 1926: A New History

David Brandon • £25
pen-and-sword.co.uk

The General Strike was one of the most significant events in 20th century Britain. The miners were locked out and the mass of rank-and-file trade unionists then came out on strike in their support. The labour movement found itself pitched against the political establishment, the apparatus of the state, the powerful mine owners backed by the Conservative Government and most of the media of the time.

With the 100th anniversary approaching, David Brandon has examined the economic, social and political processes taking places from the mid-19th century and argues that this major confrontation between labour and capital was probably inevitable. His informed and lucid account should interest students of modern British history, labour history and the railways in this period.