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How to Trace Your Family Tree: A Complete & Easy- to-Understand Guide for the Beginner
This hands-on guide for neophyte genealogists explains everything you need to know to trace your family tree--including how to begin, where to go for help, and how to organize your findings.
191 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 2, 2013
I approached this book with an unfoundedly snide 21st-century attitude: with the library book sale coming up, I wanted to read this one and get it into the donation bag. I underestimated this 1973 publication, thinking that all the information within is easily found on the web these days. It probably is in one way or another, but not condensed and organized as well as this book does in under 200 pages.
Because it's a product of the American Genealogical Research Institute, it is up-front about being a resource for tracing your American roots. There is some information about foreign sources, but it's largely about finding your family history here in the States-- so if your American family is limited to the people on your holiday card list, there will be limited value here. But if you have ancestors who go back beyond living memory, this book is a gold mine for getting started on going back in time to find out who was where and when, complete with strategies for working understaffed courthouse records, church records, and cemeteries.
Along with much practical information on how-to, there is a revealing history of why people came to America in the first place: not so many for religious freedom, as has been simplified in our history, but many more for economic reasons and not a few for needing "transport," which the book points out translates to today's "deport." A good many of our forebears were "transported" here because the criminal system in their countries of origin had run out of money and needed to be rid of them, so they were indentured here and perhaps rehabilitated into upstanding citizens. Another good section is on heraldry, with the author there debunking many long-held ideas on coats of arms and the history behind them, as well as advice for us upstarts on designing our own, which it turns out we have every correct right to do.
Many of the state records addresses are obsolete nearly 40 years on, so those pages are not worthwhile, but the list of historical and genealogical organizations in the back is priceless. Among the Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the Pioneers, and Colonial Lords of Manors is the jewel in the crown of groups I now want to research my way into: the Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain. Fingers crossed!
Because it's a product of the American Genealogical Research Institute, it is up-front about being a resource for tracing your American roots. There is some information about foreign sources, but it's largely about finding your family history here in the States-- so if your American family is limited to the people on your holiday card list, there will be limited value here. But if you have ancestors who go back beyond living memory, this book is a gold mine for getting started on going back in time to find out who was where and when, complete with strategies for working understaffed courthouse records, church records, and cemeteries.
Along with much practical information on how-to, there is a revealing history of why people came to America in the first place: not so many for religious freedom, as has been simplified in our history, but many more for economic reasons and not a few for needing "transport," which the book points out translates to today's "deport." A good many of our forebears were "transported" here because the criminal system in their countries of origin had run out of money and needed to be rid of them, so they were indentured here and perhaps rehabilitated into upstanding citizens. Another good section is on heraldry, with the author there debunking many long-held ideas on coats of arms and the history behind them, as well as advice for us upstarts on designing our own, which it turns out we have every correct right to do.
Many of the state records addresses are obsolete nearly 40 years on, so those pages are not worthwhile, but the list of historical and genealogical organizations in the back is priceless. Among the Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the Pioneers, and Colonial Lords of Manors is the jewel in the crown of groups I now want to research my way into: the Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain. Fingers crossed!
June 7, 2012
Oldie but goodie! Read this when I first started my research in 1979.
March 10, 2013
Had this one for a long time.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews