Crowe’s Nest by Elizabeth Powell Crowe

I got a review copy of a handy guide called Genealogy at a Glance: German Genealogy Research, part of the Genealogical Publishing Company’s At A Glance series, and I really like it.

So far, I have not come across anything more Germanic  than “Miner” in my surnames (and we suspect that is originally Dutch) but if I do, I will turn to this laminated four page guide first. This is an American-centric guide, outlining motivations and dates for German emigrations for the last 300 years or so, for economic, social, political and religious reasons, and pointing to where in the lower 48 states each tended to congregate.

However, it also gives you solid information on researching in Germany once you get “back to the boat”, even listing where certain surnames and given names most likely originate.

The bibliography at the back of four good German genealogy references and six good online resources make this a good thing to take to the library, or on your travels.

At $7.95,  this is a good buy, in my opinion.

Social Networking for Genealogists by Drew Smith is more fun to read than you’d think from the title. With examples and tasks, it’s almost as interactive as the web, and really fun to read. 

The author is well-qualified to guide you through the maze of  RSS feeds, virtual worlds and genealogy-specific social networks. Drew Smith, MLS, is an academic librarian with the University of South Florida in Tampa. An expert in digital genealogy, with a lifelong interest in family history research, he is Director of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and President of the Florida Genealogical Society of Tampa. He is also a regular contributor to Digital Genealogist magazine and is co-host of the weeklyGenealogy Guys Podcast.

The best part of online genealogy has always been the interaction with other family historians, professional and amateur, that you find online. Prior to this decade, that meant mainly  message boards and mailing lists.  Now, blogs, wikis, podcasts,  and even genealogy-specific social networks add depth and breadth to the experience of collaborating with genealogists all over the world.

Smith defines and describes all the social networking services that are now available online and highlights how these services can be used by genealogists to share information, photos, and videos with family, friends, and other researchers. Each chapter guides you through a unique category of social networking services using genealogy-related examples.  Then, at the end of each chapter, he gives you specific steps to get involved with such services to help you launch yourself into the realms of cyberspace without getting hopelessly lost. 

I have long admired Thomas Jay Kemp MLS for his scholarship and expertise. His book, The American Census Handbook, is just one example of his outstanding contributions to the field of genealogy.  A well-known librarian and archivist,  he is the Chair of the Genealogy Committee of the American Library Association (ALA) and a past chair of the ALA history section. He is a member of the board of directors of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the editor of the Local History & Genealogy Librarian andLocal History & Genealogy Librarian News. Tom has been working on his genealogy for the past 44 years. Kemp is the author of more than 30 books and is the Director of Genealogy at NewsBank and  he writes a blog at http://Blog.GenealogyBank.com.In this handbook, Mr. Kemp has gathered all the information you need to get birth, death and marriage information from around the world. As he points out in the introduction, although sometimes the certified copies of such documents may be restricted due to privacy and anti-theft laws, some governments allow an informational copy with the pertinent data to be issued  instead. He gives some good procedures for finding the right person to ask, especially in non-U.S. countries.So, for each state, and many countries, one will find instructions, fees, mailing addresses and the actual official form to use. In addition, many online, searchable databases are included.The forms are reproducible, but the binding makes that difficult. Although it is already priced at about  $50 at the publisher’s website, and I know this suggestion would add to the cost, I think it would be more usable for the average, hobbyist genealogist if it were spiral, comb or even notebook bound. This would make using this excellent resource much easier.I do think this is a must have for any library with a genealogy section, and I can imagine that a certified professional genealogist might use this almost daily.You can buy this book at the link above, or at the publisher’s, Genealogical Publishing Company.