Who's Who Yorkshire 1912

Publisher: S&N British Data Archive w. www.genealogysupplies.com t. 01722 716121 Price: £17.45

There weren't any celebrity magazines or gossip columns 100 years ago, even though there were 'principal residents' within each area. However, with this new CD from S&N, you can now explore the contemporary movers and shakers of pre-World War I Yorkshire.

The main bulk of the CD is an alphabetical index of the county's most important individuals in 1912, with full biographies (birth dates, spouses, parents, career and even hobbies) of everyone from solicitors, reverands and doctors, to lords, ladies and other members of the aristocracy. The search facility on the PDF means you can quickly scan the file for any of your relatives who may crop up in the biographies.

There are also seperate collections of church officials, MPs and military commanders, and a list of towns in the county with their mayors, populations and town clerks.

The CD isn't just a useful link to the well-to-do - and as it turns out, well-documented. It's also an insightful social history of Yorkshire. Above all it will help to shed light on the prominent people and places that existed during your ancestors' lives.