There has been a considerable growth in interest in local and family history. With the popularity of such programmes as Time Team, The 1900 House, and The House Detectives we are all the more keen to find out where we came from and what life was like for our ancestors or those who lived in our home town, city, or village prior to us. Do you know what a dreng is? The origins of the word endorse? When the first poll tax was levied? Who the Luddites were? Where the surname Chapman came from? What mummers do at Christmas? What Gregory King did? The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History, available in the Oxford Paperback Reference series, provides an authoritative reference work to all things associated with local and family history. With over 2000 cross-referenced A-Z entries the book gives detailed summaries of the latest knowledge in such fields as social, urban, agricultural, legal, family, and ecclesiastical history.