Why did Carol Baxter produce these British and Irish Given Name handy guides?  

Carol has long been interested in given names.

    In fact, at the age of eleven, she started "collecting" female given names. Within a few years, she had a handwritten list of 22,000 names which, in those pre-computer days, was becoming unmanageable. A few years later, she changed hobbies and began tracing her family history. 

    Many years later, when she was contacted by a possible descendant of Captain Thunderbolt who displayed a not-surprising ignorance about given name diminutives (aka "pet names"), Carol realised that there was scope for a series of handy guides aimed at genealogists.  

    Why?

    Our ancestors' names are the gateway to tracing our family history. Without a surname and a given name, we hit an insurmountable brick wall. Thus, genealogists should be armed with knowledge about these critical family history ingredients. 

    This series includes four handy guides, each of which explore popularity, spelling variants, diminutives and abbreviations:

      - English Given Names

      - Scottish Given Names

      - Irish Given Names

      - Welsh Given Names

    Each handy guide is A4 in size and 8 pages in length and is published on cardboard rather than paper.