This practical but inspiring book considers what local history is, why researching it is valuable and rewarding, and how we should go about it. Issues addressed include: getting oral and documentary evidence; keeping records; the nature of data, information and knowledge; and their use to create the different products of local history research. Michael Williams is both a professional scientist and a local historian of long standing, and he uses both sides of his experience in a text that is at once rigorous about the historical process, and also a fascinating – and often moving – account of his adventures into the past of his own family and community. He demonstrates local history methodology through his research into ancestry, migration, work, war and religion in the towns and villages of England and Wales. It is richly illustrated throughout.