Do you know how long it took to sail across the Atlantic Ocean? Was it faster from east to west or west to east? Imagine sailing to India, a five-month trip around the Cape of Good Hope! No wonder late Victorians valued the steamship and the Suez Canal. What difference did the inventions of the telephone or steam engine make to our ancestors' lives? Do you know what a rod or a chain is and what they measured?

Time Traveller's Handbook considers documents and how to look at papers and artifacts that have survived over the years, as well as those family legends and "mythinformation" handed down by word of mouth. This sort of information can be found on the Internet - somewhere - but the researcher can waste a lot of time hunting for it. In an entertaining yet useful manner, Time Traveller's Handbook brings together for family historians a lot of facts our ancestors once knew, took for granted, and used regularly.

Althea Douglas has written numerous articles on genealogy, Canadian local history, and heritage conservation. Her previous books include Tools of the Trade for Canadian Genealogists, Help! I've Inherited an Attic Full of History, and Here Be Dragons: Navigational Hazards for the Canadian Family Researcher. She lives in Ottawa.