The Line of Sixteen: Searching for my children’s great, great grandparents is based around the cohort of direct ancestors four steps back from the two children (who are now adults) in John Rigg’s family.

Some lines go back further to 16th Century Yorkshire and Hannover and 17th Century Suffolk – but the author has not simply sought as many pieces as possible of the (never-ending) jigsaw puzzle. Rather, the focus is on the lives led by the members of the cast list.

There are no Prime Ministers or Admirals of the Fleet in this narrative. Instead, there are the ‘ordinary’ people whose resilience and determination have taken this family story through to the present day.

They were the ones who raised their families, worked hard and migrated to better their prospects. They were the ones who experienced the Great Famine in the Ireland of the 1840s, the horrors of the First World War and the perils of service in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War – and whose personal stories deserve to be told.

By describing his detailed research methodology, the author provides valuable insights on the sources to be explored and the pitfalls to be avoided when compiling any family history.

John Rigg was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a First Class degree in Economics, later completing a Ph.D. He worked as an economic consultant in London and in the Senior Civil Service in Scotland.

John has been researching his family history for nearly 40 years and has published several articles for the Cleveland Family History Society Journal. His non-family history articles include those on economics and statistics for the Scottish Economic Bulletin and Scottish Economic Statistics.

John has written extensively on watching sport. An Ordinary Spectator: 50 Years of Watching Sport was published by SilverWood Books in 2012 and Still An Ordinary Spectator: Five More Years of Watching Sport in 2017. The third book in the series – An Ordinary Spectator Returns: Watching Sport Again – was published in 2023. He has also written sport-related articles for the magazines Backpass (football), Backspin and The Nightwatchman (cricket), the Rugby League Journal and Forty-20 (rugby league) and (co-authored with Richard Lewney) the International Review of the Sociology of Sport.

John’s fiction is written under the name of JR Alexander. The novels - Shouting at the Window (2020) and On the Carousel (2021) – are published by High Ridge Publishing and available on Kindle and other online platforms. Long Forgotten Events will be published in 2025.

He is married with two children and lives in Scotland.

Find out more about John and his writing at www.anordinaryspectator.com and www.jralexanderauthor.com.

4 stars from Helen Hollick's Of History and Kings Blog

This is one of those books that you dip in and out of, maybe reading only a chapter or two at a time - at 444 pages, it is a big book. It isn't fast-paced action, but offers detailed observations and is carefully constructed.

Anyone interested in the history of the late 1800s, the Great War and Second World War, or the history behind the ordinary people of England, Scotland, Ireland, Malta and Germany as well as Suffolk and Yorkshire in the 16th and 17th centuries would appreciate the research that the author has diligently undertaken. It would also be especially appealing to anyone interested in tracing a family history and genealogy. This descriptive and informative book is fascinating as a descriptive record of the past.

I read on Kindle, so couldn't confirm the formatting and layout for the paperback edition, but I have known the publisher, SilverWood Books Ltd, for many years now, and have always found their books to be professionally produced - the e-book edition certainly is.