Genealogy Bookshelf 3

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Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian
by Elizabeth Shown Mills

Specifically written for family history researchers
Reviewer: Midwest Book Review  from Oregon, WI USA

   Evidence! Citation & Analysis For The Family Historian by experienced genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills is a very useful and "user friendly" guide specifically written for family history researchers and genealogists regardless of their experience levels. Evidence! is about the proper form, presentation, and documentation of source citations and drawing sound conclusions from often limited evidence. An absolute "must-read" for anyone devoted to putting together a genealogical history, Evidence! is an essential, core title for personal, professional, academic, genealogical, and community library reference collections.

A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors:
How to Find and Record Your Unique Heritage
by Dwight A. Radford, Kyle J. Betit

Specifically written for the aspiring genealogist
Reviewer: Midwest Book Review from Oregon, WI USA

   A Genealogist's Guide To Discovering Your Irish Ancestors was specifically designed and written for the aspiring genealogist seeking guidelines for determining an Irish ancestor's place of origin. Dwight Radford and Kyle Betit effectively collaborate to present sound advice for researching Irish records both domestically and overseas; basic strategies essential to successful Irish research; special advice about tracing Scots-Irish ancestors; practical advice for accessing Irish cemeteries, land, church, estate, census, and military records; how to access civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths, as well as emigration lists; sources and strategies for researching Irish ancestors who settled in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Wales, and the Caribbean, as well as timely information on Internet resources and favorite sites on the World Wide Web. Highly recommended for personal and community library genealogical research reference collections, A Genealogist's Guide To Discovering Your Irish Ancestors offers both the novice and the experienced genealogist with everything necessary to trace and record their family's Irish history.

The Sleuth Book for Genealogists:
Strategies for More Successful Family History Research
by Emily Anne Croom

Sleuth's a Winner!
Reviewer: tipsntyme from Colorado Springs, CO United States

   Veteran genealogy author Croom has done it again. She's produced a "strategy" book for genealogy detective work that is a sure-fire winner for beginning searchers, a delight for mystery lovers, and a valuable learning tool for advanced genealogists.

   She sustains the detective theme throughout with quotes from both familiar and famous literary sleuths ranging from Sherlock and Hercule to Mark Twain and Margaret Truman. Best of all, her quotes are not simply window-dressing to begin or end a section, but are carefully woven into her discussion of various topics. Furthermore, her bibliography not only contains a remarkably up-to-date genealogy list, but also the sources of her "detective" quotes and further reading about detective work.

   Genealogy is detective work, and Croom makes it fun. Her carefully planned strategies are solid research techniques which all family historians would benefit from implementing.

   A glance at the table of contents reveals the wealth of solid information about the research process: defining the problem, developing a plan, broadening the scope, documenting research, gathering information, examining the evidence, arranging ideas in progress reports, completing the project. Additional chapters are devoted to three model searches including one for finding slave ancestors and another for tracing a female line.

   The appendices alone are worth the price of the book, Appendix B is an excellent guide to documentation style which incorporates the guidelines of the best available, and current citation information from the MLA Handbook, the Chicago Manual of Style, Elizabeth Mills' Evidence, and Lackey's Cite Your Sources.

   The icons for tips and notes in the margins not only highlight important points from the text, but allow for lots of marginal notetaking by the reader as well.

   A delightful and valuable addition to the library of the mushrooming number of family history detectives, Croom's book is a "must read."

Preserving Your Family Photographs:
How to Organize, Present, and Restore Your Precious Family Images
by Maureen A. Taylor

The lyrics of the song are wrong.
Reviewer: Mark Howells from Puyallup, Washington State, USA

   Mama won't take your Kodachrome away, it is time and the elements which are attacking your treasured family photographs. Your Polaroid snapshots are fading as you read this. Those "magnetic" photo albums with the adhesive pages are gassing your family pictures to crumbs. Your digital images may not be viewable by your great grandchildren. But don't give up hope - take action. Maureen Taylor's "Preserving Your Family Photographs" tells you how to take charge and protect your family's photographic history. "Preserving Your Family Photographs" shows you how taking some simple steps now will slow down the aging process of your photographs. And its doesn't require a chemistry set. The book further discusses how and when to choose a professional conservator, concerns about digital photography, how to organize your collection, and even how to safely place your treasures in a scrapbook. This book takes up where "Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs" leaves off. After you've identified your family photographs, "Preserving Your Family Photographs" tells you how to keep them for generations to come.

Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History
by Katherine Scott Sturdevant, Sharon DeBartolo Carmack (Foreword)

Terrific Resource
Reviewer: S Walker from Colorado Springs, CO USA

   Kathy Sturdevant brings her expertise of social history to the world of family history and genealogy with humor, flair, and solid information. With clear examples and explanations of the many sources/resources available to family historians, this book bridges the often separated worlds of history and genealogy with a lively style and enjoyable wit. Tips on preserving and documenting family "artifacts," a meaty bibliography, photos (and how to "read" them), research pointers, thought-provoking ideas for research, helpful and accessible academic orientation. I took Kathy's course on the same topic (co-taught with Certified Genealogist Sharon DeBartolo Carmack)--the book demonstrates why Kathy is such a popular instructor at her institution. Reading the book is almost as good as taking the course; maybe better if you prefer to skip the required term paper. :-) On the other hand, you'll miss Sharon's infamous Halloween lecture at the local cemetery and the intriguing antique artifacts Kathy brings to class.

The Genealogists Computer Companion
by Rhonda R. McClure

Not the best, but not bad
Reviewer: Michael K. Smith from Baton Rouge, Louisiana

   I've made something of a specialty in recent years of perusing new publications that treat the intersection of genealogy and family research with computer technology and the Internet. Some are excellent but many are simply a rehash of the most basic (and low-tech) genealogical techniques, or are concerned more with how to turn your computer on and get your modem to work, or are simply compilations of web site addresses (which are better found on the World Wide Web itself). This one falls somewhere in the middle. The author is a well-known columnist and author of the _Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy,_ and she obviously knows her subject, but she often strays off-topic and introduces unnecessary padding -- as with seven full pages on traditional abstracting methods for land titles, including a discussion of the rectangular survey system and how many square rods to an acre, though she also includes a plug for AniMap. On the other hand, she provides excellent commentaries on the limitations of Internet library catalogs and other tools and the cut-and-paste ease with which bad research can be spread via the Web. She's also adamant that doing real family research still requires one to leave the computer and venture into the courthouse and the library stacks (though the computer can make your foray more efficient), and she doesn't hesitate to suggest that one doesn't really *need* software to do genealogy (though she would hate to have to return to paper-only notetaking).

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