Tracing Your Glasgow Ancestors is a volume in the series of city ancestral guides published by Pen & Sword for readers and researchers who want to find out about life in Glasgow in the past and to know where the key sources for its history can be found. In vivid detail it describes the rise of Glasgow through tobacco, shipping, manufacturing and trade from a minor cathedral town to the cosmopolitan center of the present day.

Ian Maxwell’s book focuses on the lives of the local people both rich and poor and on their experience as Glasgow developed around them. It looks at their living conditions, at health and the ravages of disease, at the influence of religion and migration and education. It is the story of the Irish and Highland migrants, Quakers, Jews, Irish, Italians, and more recently people from the Caribbean, South-Asia and China who have made Glasgow their home.

A wealth of information on the city and its people is available, and Glasgow Ancestors is an essential guide for anyone researching its history or the life of an individual ancestor. institutions, clubs, societies and schools.

"When we were compiling the first part of our family tree (using Ancestry.co.uk - FindMyPast is extremely poor by comparison) a year or so ago, we ran into problems with the Scottish side of our research, and we still haven't completed it. This latest volume in Pen and Sword's magnificent genealogy series provides a nuber of clues as to how to proceed - obviously this particular title concentrates on the Glasgow area, but the suggestions are still pertinent and the approach to Scottish records is superb. A must-have for your family tree library."

“This book is well written and a must for anyone with ancestors in Glasgow or the surrounding communities. However, it also has wider appeal for others with Scottish ancestors because it includes a description of the national records (such as taxation records). If your ancestors live in another Scottish burgh this inclusion will certainly indicate and explain what records may be available for your community.”