7 August 2009 by Libbi.

ADA, Okla., Aug. 6, 2009 — Cultural artifacts of historical significance are often lost with the passing of time, leaving only those things that have been made of stone or bone - or that have been expertly encased. To the Chickasaw and other southeastern Native American tribes one artifact hard-pressed to withstand the wages of time - the feather cape - was made to honor tribal elders and leaders.

Written in the voice of tribal elder Robert Perry,   The Turkey Feather Cape: My Creation from Beyond History  (published by iUniverse - http://www.iuniverse.com), explores the materials, design, and preparation needed to go about making the traditional feather cape regalia while preserving the unique history of the Chickasaw tribe. Complete with detailed patterns and photos of the construction of a turkey feather cape, the guide encourages visualization, prizes inspiration, and introduces the hidden reward of personal development appropriate for anyone interested in Native American history.

“My thoughts are broader than how to make feather capes,” explains Perry in the introduction.”The hope here is to reawaken skills and attributes that will carry Chickasaw Nation through the 21st century … Today, living at a hurried pace in a ‘fast food’ culture, only a time-out will give us enough pause to recover the senses. I am suggesting a project that will take months to make. You, like the ancient artisans, will be working alone to make a turkey feather cape. Succeed, and you will have a cape and, perhaps, the courage to take a creative path to other complex projects.”Perry suggests the arduous project of making a traditional turkey feather cape - cultural knowledge that had been long-forgotten - while describing the strong spiritual life of his ancestors.

The author, a Chickasaw elder, sees “… the effort as useful for gaining skills with visualizing and problem-solving, not to mention cultivating patience!”

About the Author

Born of Chickasaw parents, Robert Perry left Ada, Oklahoma to pursue a long chemical engineering career, one that earned eight U.S. Patents. He and his wife Faye retired in his hometown, the headquarters of the Chickasaw Nation where Perry is a member of the Council of Elders that advises on tribal cultural issues, an emeritus board member of the Chickasaw Historical Society, and is on the board of the Chickasaw Press. He is a member of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. Other books by Perry include Life With the Little People (Frank Waters Memorial Publication Series , No 3)and the upcoming biography Uprising: Woody Crumbo’s Indian Art (to be released in 2009). For more information, visit http://www.TurkeyFeatherCape.com.” The Turkey Feather Cape: My Creation from Beyond History  is at http://www.iUniverse.com, http://www.bn.com, and http://www.amazon.com ISBN: 9781440101205 - 6 x 9 - Paperback - 88 pages - $15.95

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8 April 2009 by Libbi.

Social Networking for Genealogists by Drew Smith is a handy guide to making interaction on the Web work for you as a family historian.

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 weekly Genealogy 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. 

Details:

Publisher: Genealogical Publishing Company

Format: Paper

Pages: 129 pp.

Published: 2009

Price: $18.95

ISBN: 9780806317953

Item #: GPC5446

Posted in Bookshelf, Genealogy Sites, News, Genealogy, Genealogy Online | Print | 3 Comments »

26 March 2009 by Libbi.

Another good book for your genealogy bookshelf is

 Genealogy is great fun, but you’d never know it from reading about 80 percent of genealogy how-to books. This one is different: using quotes from various mystery novels from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, Croom helps the reader feel the joy, the intrigue, the puzzle-solving rush of genealogy. In reading this book, you understand that it’s not the ”research” as in writing a dull, dry term paper…it’s the evidence and clue finding that makes genealogy so addictive. Just like good detectives, we must look for the information by asking the right questions and looking in the right places, carefully collecting and documenting as we go. It’s like living your own mystery novel!

Just one example of how well this metaphor works: Chapter Three, “Broadening the Scope: Cluster Genealogy” uses quotes from various fictional detectives to make the point that our ancestors did not exist in a vacuum: they were part of communities, churches, clubs and more. Looking at the records of their neighbors, friends, cousins and business partners might help you find that next chink in the brick wall. Wills, deeds, court records, even being “called out in church for selling spirits on the Sabbath” hold clues to who are ancestors were.

Great information, great fun to read, this is a must have to add to your genealogy book collection!

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17 March 2009 by Libbi.

Last year, I reviewed Elizabeth Shown Mills’ excellent Quicksheet Citing Online Historical Resources.  I just received a new QuickSheet from Genealogical Publishing Co. , “Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images” and it is just as good!

Mills’  QuickSheets are  four-page, laminated, folded, 8.5 X11 publications which can be easily carried in a briefcase or laptop case to a library, or kept right on your desk next to your computer monitor. The source citations for Ancestry.com databases and images in this QuickSheet are based on those in the book Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace  (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007).

With this newest QuickSheet, color coded “Ancestry green” (the original one is red, like the cover of Ancestry’s Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources, Third Revised Edition), Mills shows you specifically how to create citations  for Ancestry.com databases and images.  Each page has footnotes with comments about specific examples to help the user understand  the subtle distinctions of the records and their citations.

The first page  has an overview called “Basic Principles” about Ancestry.com database types and the requirement to create citations for both the source that Ancestry used and the database/image that Ancestry provides as a product.  It also has Basic Templates that can be used as a guideline for any other Ancestry.com database which might be created by an outside party.

The rest of the first page and the other three pages are devoted to the models  for each type of resource (similar to Evidence Explained models). The pages are set out in a easy to use table of Source List Entry, Full Reference Note and Subsequent Reference Note format samples for everything from databases to images to maps.

The 20 record type models provided on this QuickSheet include:

* Basic Format: Databases - Created by Ancestry
* Basic Format: Images - Manuscript Collection
* Articles (at Learning Center) - Staff article, unsigned
* Articles (at Learning Center) - Online archive for print publications
* Books: Database Extractions
* Books: Images
* Censuses: Databases - 1890 Substitute
* Censuses: Images
* City Directories: Databases
* City Directories: Images
* Draft Registrations: Images
* Family Trees - Documented Data
* Family Trees - Undocumented data
* Immigration-Emigration Rolls - Databases
* Immigration-Emigration Rolls - Images
* Maps: Images
* Military Records: Databases
* Military Records: Images
* Newspapers: Images
* PERSI: Database

For the beginner, this handy reference will show you what you should be searching for, and how to note when and where you found it. For the more proficient genealogist, if you often use the Ancestry.com census, military, newspaper, family trees and maps in family history research, and have struggled to place correct source citations in your genealogy databases, then this publication is your ticket to that wonderful place where all your evidence is sufficiently cited and organized. at $7.95, it’s a must have!

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28 January 2009 by Libbi.

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24 November 2008 by Libbi.

Ancestry’s Red Book is a standard reference for United States genealogists.

People who own this book rave about the organization, the maps, the easy to understand explanations,  and most of all the ability to look up not only where a county is, but WHEN it became a county. Many US counties were formed when a territory became a state, but almost as many were carved out of original counties. That’s how the Commonwealth of Kentucky wound up with 120 counties.

Just as important, every state has a different set-up as far as county/parish records. The Red Book tells you who keeps what records, not only state by state but county by county.  Also, it has an extensive bibliography on background sources for even more detailed information on each state.

Keep it on your desk. Take it with you libraries, courthouses and on genealogy research trips.

And ask Santa Claus to put one in your stocking!

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29 September 2008 by Libbi.

The Source  A Guidebook to American Genealogy is an important addition to your genealogy bookshelf. Edited by by Loretto Dennis Szucs and  Sandra Hargreaves Luebkin, this illustrated guide to records, techniques and best practices was updated in 2006 to include electronic media and sources. Special subjects such as tracing urban ancestors help you break down brick walls. Other esoteric resources covered include tracking immigrants, Native American, Spanish/Southwest, Black, Asian, Jewish-American, computers and heredity & lineage societies.

It also guides you to published genealogical sources: city directories, newspapers, genealogy indexes and compiled biographies. Appendices include addresses of regional Federal Archives, state historical archives, historical societies, research libraries, “Where to Write for Vital Records”, genealogy societies and genealogy book publishers.

Many  genealogists refer to this book as their “Genealogy Bible,” the first place they turn to for inspiration, direction and help for genealogy. DearMYRTLE says of this edition, “I especially like to curl up and read it when I get stuck in a rut using just one or two types of records. This book reminds me to broaden my scope of research!”

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Note to readers: I will blog today and tomorrow, then take the rest of the week off to go to a funeral in Tennessee. —EPC

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24 September 2008 by Libbi.

Last night, I  finished reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and I want to recommend it to anyone who loves politics,  Lincoln, and/or history.  Or, psychology. It was published in 2005, but I just got around to reading it (hurricanes, graduations, etc. etc.)

Thoroughly engrossing, this is not just another Lincoln biography. It’s about things you know, but from a perspective you may not have seen before.  It is an in-depth look at the personalities and atmosphere of the middle of the 19th century, and the effects they had on us all. 

Using direct quotes from diaries, letters, public documents, newspapers and more, complete with original abbreviations and misspellings, it is like being part of the “in crowd” at one of the most important junctures of American history. And because of the quotes, it’s as if you are hanging out with all these people, with all their quirky habits, watching them live their lives and change the world.

I hope you find time to read and enjoy it.

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17 September 2008 by Libbi.

The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood

The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood is a treasure trove of genealogy sources, techniques and methods.  Greenwood himself describes it this way:

“… when I was teaching genealogical research at Ricks College in Idaho. At that time, there was no good text on American research, so I wrote one. The book, THE RESEARCHER’S GUIDE TO AMERICAN GENEALOGY, was published in 1973 by Genealogical Publishing Co. Since that time there have been two more editions, the third edition being published in 2000. It is still the most widely used textbook on American genealogical research and is considered by many to be a classic. It has sold more than 100,000 copies through the three editions. (Can you imagine how much space 100,000 books would take up if you stacked them all in one place? Neither can I.) ”

My Mother’s 1973 copy sits on my desk. The text is underlined, highlighted, notated and marked, reminding me of how often she used it. The most recent edition has good chapters on evidence, personal computers, and family historians.  As it is a textbook, it is accessible to the most beginning of genealogists. Add this to your list of “must have” genealogy references.

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3 September 2008 by Libbi.

Every genealogist needs a bookshelf of references to help with sources, techniques and history. Of course, you should have my book ;D but that’s not the only one!

Today, I’m going to start in this blog an occasional series on books the genealogist should have to help at every stage of research and explain why each is important. Most of these books will be for American genealogists, but I will also tell you about some books to help with other nations as well. 

First up is a very important volume that my mother kept on her desk at all times, and occasionally toted to the library: The Handybook of American Genealogy from Everton’s Publishers. It is now in its 11th Edition, published in 2005.

The Handybook is an atlas, a history book, an address book, and a comprehensive guide to family research in the U. S., all rolled into one.  Full-color maps of each state show every country in the U.S. Map coordinates help you locate the county you are looking for, even tracking the boundary changes through the years, a feature will save you hours of research.

Histories for each state in the U.S. help you understand how Native American movement, wars, settlements, territory, and statehood affected their creation. 121 migration trail maps give detailed descriptions of the paths your ancestors traveled.

This new edition has updated information for vital records, repositories, jurisdictions, and details on records they hold. The Handybook is where you will find descriptions of the major record collections available in each state and addresses that help you go straight to the source, mailing and internet addresses for societies, archives, and libraries in all 50 states including telephone and fax numbers are included when available. The latest edition is also available with an optional CD (for PC/Mac) that  has the complete book, word searchable, and printable maps.

Handybook for Genealogists 11th Edition $50.00
Handybook for Genealogists 11th Edition/w CD (for PC/Mac) $60.00

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