Alison Light spent time researching the past of her family and discovered that they were not special in any way but were, in fact, Common People. Her ancestors have been, almost without fail, people of the working classes in Britain. In this book she digs back into her family’s past and, in doing so, she tells us about the social history of our country for the past two hundred years or so.
The history of ordinary people in the recent past is the history of the industrialisation of Britain and the move from rural to urban economies. Many people were uprooted from their homes and ended up in cities, often forced to move around to follow work. Some of the family members gained skills, especially in needle making, and even owned small businesses but there was no great wealth or prosperity. Some family members became destitute or ill and ended up in the workhouse or mental institutions, and some others were sent to Australia because of crimes committed.
This book is excellent at explaining how to find your family’s history and it is a good look at the social history of the time. Records don’t, unfortunately, give us the full story of people’s lives so we only learn the snippets that can be deduced from public records. I did feel, occasionally, that there were just too many people included in the book and that it was difficult to remember the individuals, but, on the whole, I thought that what the author was able to share was interesting and important for our understanding of our collective past.
Anne Is Reading 