In Search of Your European Roots: A Complete Guide to Tracing Your Ancestors in Every Country in Europe

Dean Tudor is a journalism professor at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute and founding editor of the CBRA.

This is the third book that Baxter has authored. In 1978 Macmillan published his In Search of Your Roots (revised in 1984 and reviewed in CBRA 1984, entry 1041), a more or less general book that surveyed the practicalities of ancestor searching. In 1982 Macmillan published In Search of Your British and Irish Roots (see CBRA 1984, entry 1039). In his current effort, directed toward Continental Europe, Baxter opens with a discussion of European records. Besides being decentralized and haphazard, they have also been affected by boundary changes caused by wars, revolutions, partitions, and plebiscites. In addition, there have been many, many name changes (both place names and surnames) for any sort of reason, both serious and whimsical. Tracing European roots, then, is very, very tough.

After a short section on Mormon records and European Jewish records, Baxter surveys each country alphabetically, giving good advice and search strategies on how to get access to such files as civil registrations, church registers, wills, passports, university records, inquisition records, passenger lists, censuses, confirmations, mortgages, court records, conscription files, tax assessments, and so forth as applicable to each country. A well-researched book.