Our newest collection items

Here's a list of the titles added to our shelves in November.

Baptists of Shelby Co, AL; Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates; Marriage returns of Shelby Co, IN 1895-1898; Beaufort Co, NC will books 1720-1874; Beaufort Co, NC deeds Oct 1700-July 1709; Beaufort Co, NC tax list for 1779, 1784, 1786, 1789; Anson Co, NC wills 1790-1900; Genealogy Online 9^th ed.; NC Slaves and Free Persons of Color: Burke, Lincoln and Rowan Counties; Abstracts of the Testamentary Proceedings of the Prerogative Court of Maryland 1712-1721; Abstracts of Carteret Co, NC deeds 1713-1759; History of the Twenty-Ninth Division “Blue and Gray” 1917-1919; American Treasure: the enduring spirit of the DAR; Marriages of Loudoun Co, VA; Plano and the Interurban Railway; American Genealogical Research at the DAR Washington, D.C.; History of Georgia Methodism; Copy of the Original Index Book showing the Revolutionary Claims field in South Carolina between August 20, 1783 and August 31, 1786.

You'll find these on our new items shelf until the first week of January. Hope some are helpful in your research.

Pilgrims

If April showers bring May flowers, what do Mayflowers bring?
Pilgrims. :-) 
Do you think your ancestors were among the first to share a meal with the American Indians in the new world? Well, it was a small boat, but as you know we humans tend to reproduce exponentially. If you want to check out the possibility of your ancestor having sailed the seas with those first adventurers try the book Mayflower Source Records from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (copyright 1986 Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.). From the introduction this book "contains vital, church, ministerial, cemetery or other records for all but three of the Plymouth colony towns that composed early Plymouth, Bristol, and Barnstable counties and were not later annexed by Rhode Island." You can find this source at R Gen 929.3 May.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011 everyone.

Genealogy Online

More than anything most people seem to want to find most, if not all, of their family information online. This isn't possible of course. However, online tools are more and more helpful in your search. A book that can help you in this endeavor is the ninth edition of Genealogy Online by Elizabeth Powell Crowe. (copyright 2011 McGraw-Hill Companies). There are 4 parts: The Basics, General Genealogy, The Nitty Gritty, The Appendixes. There's a chapter comparing various software programs for tracking your family research, chapters on using social networking to your advantage, sites to find names, dates, and places, and a host of other helpful information. This new book is part of our circulating collection and can be found on our new materials shelf the next couple of months. Gen 025.069291 CRO.

Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

This was a favorite statement of one of my former co-workers. The most recent issue of Family Chronicle magazine reminds me of this in my genealogy research. Michael Hait has an article starting on page 21 entitled Crafting An Effective Research Plan. I recommend you come in and read the whole article to figure out how it best applies to you, but here are a few of the highlights. 1. Define your problem - which line of your ancestors will you follow first? Which ancestor are you missing vital event data for? Which ancestor do  you have conflicting information for? 2. Investigate the Location - this means researching the place and time period and may include researching the laws or conditions in practice at a given time and place. 3. Identify records of interest - apply the Genealogical Proof Standard to your research. (for more about this Standard checkout our book at Gen 929.1 Ros). According to Mr. Hait "completing these three steps before you step foot in a library or archive will help you to make the most of your research time and help you produce professional-quality research all the time."

Church Records and Our Next Program

If you missed our program on Saturday you missed some good information from Tresa on researching church records. She has researched them stateside and in various other countries so she had some good advice and examples. I have a few copies of her handout with some web sites that might helpful to you. I'll put the copies in the brochures rack of the genealogy department. She also recommended a couple of books on that handout. We own one and I'll try to buy the other. Meanwhile, here are a few tidbits I remember.
1. When you pick up a source, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with how the information was recorded. Each pastor, diocese, or other entity added their own "flavor" in recording church member information.
2. When working with foreign language records make yourself a sheet with the proper translation of your family members' names and keep it nearby when looking at the records so you can spot the names easier.
3. Check for an index, but be prepared to go page by page if you don't find an index, or anything in the index.

Next program - I've just confirmed our next speaker today. John Wylie will be here January 22, 2011 for a morning program. He'll talk about the benefits of using software to keep up with your family research and offer some advice on how to choose the program that will work best for you. 10:30 am is start time. John is a founding member of GENTECH and an active member of Computers in Genealogy subgroup of the Dallas Genealogical Society.