Sporting Ancestors: Tracing Your Family's Athletic Past

From Chariots of Fire to village cricket—how family historians can make the most of sports archivesFrom Victorian diarists listing boat- and horse-race results; to war diarists mentioning organized games of soccer, cricket, and tennis; to the discovery of watch chains with Edwardian cricket medals attached; family histories are littered with amateur or professional sporting references. Sport, in its many forms, is an important part of heritage, and this guide covers 300 years of British sporting life. Sports archives open up a whole new range of sources for the family historian—minute books where teams were chosen and lists of competitors stored, match-day programs, correspondence and club histories, newspaper reports, team photographs, and cartoons. This is the essential guide for anyone wanting to discover how sports figure in their own family history.