By Dennis L. Maness,
MLS
Twice during lectures I attended
at the Southern California Genealogical Society’s Jamboree 2013 the great
genealogical reference books Red Book
and The Source were mentioned. A few
months ago at a SMCGS meeting The Source
was listed in the speaker’s handout, and just last month both works were
mentioned in two webinars I attended.
Now I have a confession to
make—I haven’t used either of these books in years even though I actually own a
copy of “The Source”! But they are wonderful sources for doing your genealogy
so these mentions prompted me to look into them again. Now you may be asking
what does this have to do with my “Digging for Roots Online” theme but I have
great news—they are both online! And free! And, unlike the print books, have
clickable links in their articles. (Confession #2—I hate typing in links from
printed sources.)
On the Ancestry.com site (
http://www.ancestry.com/) click on the
“Learning Center” tab at the top and scroll down to “Family History Wiki”.
On the right hand column you
will see
The
Ancestry.com Wiki is made up of four kinds of fantastic content:
§ Other
great Ancestry.com content
§ Content
added by you
and there you see links to both books.
=============================================================
The current edition of The Source, the third, was published in
2006. Ancestry describes it this way:
When Ancestry
published the first edition of The
Source in 1984, it quickly
became a standard reference in the field of genealogy and family history. That
same year, it received the coveted “Best Reference” award from the American
Library Association. The 1997 edition, built upon the foundations laid down by
its predecessor, sold more than 100,000 copies. A poll of librarians placed The
Source, sometimes referred to as “the genealogist’s bible,” at the top of the
“Top 10 Genealogy Books” for the wealth of information it offers to beginning
and experienced genealogists…”
Next there is a clickable listing of the table of
contents:
Third Edition Table of Contents
§ Family
Associations (Coming soon...)
§ Hereditary
and Lineage Organizations (Coming soon...)
The current edition of Red Book,
the third, was published in 2004. Ancestry describes it this way:
“Red Book is designed to help family historians learn where to
find information about their ancestors by taking an approach focused on
localities. It is an expansive guide to the most useful resources in each of
the fifty United States and the District of Columbia. Organized by state, the
content easily directs the user to information-rich resources in areas
including:
§ Vital Records
§ Census Records
§ Internet Resources
§ County Resources
§ Background Sources
§ Land Records
§ Probate Records
§ Court Records
§ Tax Records
§ Cemetery Records
§ Church Records
§ Military Records
§ Periodicals, Newspapers, and Manuscript Collections
§ Archives, Libraries, and Societies
Major highlights of the content are the county resources published
in table format for each state. Information in these tables often include
county name, when the county was formed, which counties the new county was
created from, and dates for when each county started recording information such
as birth, marriage, and death records or land, probate and court records. Each
state also has a county, town, or parish map.”
The clickable table of contents is very basic:
and so on to:
Now you can
see one of the few drawbacks of using either book; the copyright dates, 2006
and 2004, respectively.
Both of these online books are extremely helpful tools
and will repay many times over your looking and using them. I’m so very glad I
rediscovered them.
=========================
Remember,
as Legacy Family Tree’s Geoff Rasmussen says,
“Life is short; do genealogy first!”
The staff seemed very helpful. They gave us an escort to the grave site we were looking for, something we really appreciated. Even with a map, the memorial park is huge and it would be easy to get lost. One of the unique features was the scattering garden. Overlooking the mountains and our favorite Christmas tree farm, it is legal to scatter ashes from this point. The area where the ashes fall is inaccessible to the public. Those whose remains have been scattered are memorialized on tiles throughout the area.
