Family History Memoirs

October is Family History Month! Celebrate by reading a family history memoir!

         

The Yellow House by Sarah Broom
In 1961, Sarah Broom's mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. This is a memoir of place which also traces a century of the author's family history and the impact of class, race and Hurricane Katrina on her sense of identity.

All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung
From early childhood, Nicole Chung heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth but as she grew up, she wondered if the story she’d been told was the whole truth. Chung tells of her search for the Korean parents who gave her up and offers a moving chronicle of surprising connections and the repercussions of unearthing painful family secrets

The Girl from Human Street: Ghosts of Memory in a Jewish Family by Roger Cohen
Beginning in the nineteenth century, Roger Cohen tracks his family’s story of repeated upheaval. As he follows them across continents and decades, valued heritage and evolving loyalties converge into a resonant portrait of cultural identity in the modern age. It is a tale of otherness marked by overt and latent anti-Semitism but also otherness as a sense of inheritance.

Not My Father's Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming
When Alan Cumming agreed to appear on Who Do You Think You Are?, he hoped to solve the mystery of his maternal grandfather's disappearance. But just before filming, Alan's father, whom Alan had not seen or spoken to for more than a decade, revealed that he had a secret to share, one that would set into motion a journey that would change Alan's life forever.

White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing by Gail Lukasik
After learning her mother's life-changing secret, Gail Lukasik embarks on a quest to uncover her mother’s racial lineage, tracing her family back to eighteenth-century Louisiana. Lukasik also explores her African-American mother’s decision to pass, how she hid her secret even from her own husband, and the price she paid for choosing whiteness.

Annie's Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg
Approaching her 80th birthday, Steve Luxenberg's mother told a doctor that she had a disabled sister but everyone had always thought she was an only child. Mystified, Luxenberg follows the history of his mother's family trying to answer the question: If his mom had a sibling, why had her existence been concealed for decades?

On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family by Lisa See
As a girl, Lisa See would listen to her grand-mother and great-aunt's colorful stories about their family's past. With these stories and her own years of research, See chronicles the odyssey of her Chinese-American family, a history that encompasses racism, romance, secret marriages, entrepreneurial genius, and much more, as two distinctly different cultures meet in a new world.

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro
After submitting her DNA to a genealogy site, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. Shapiro examines the extraordinary moment we live in in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.

Helpful Books for Polish Genealogy

If you're looking for more Polish genealogy guidance, here are some recommended books that can help with your research.

Going Home: A Guide to Polish-American Family History Research

Polish Roots

Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings

Following the Paper Trail: A Multilingual Translation Guide

In Their Words: A Genealogist's Translation Guide to Polish, German, Latin, and Russian Documents

A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents

Polish Customs, Traditions and Folklore

Forgotten Doors: The Other Ports of Entry to the United States

New 2018 Genealogy Books

Check out some of the books we added this year to our circulating genealogy collection:

The Adoptee's Guide to DNA Testing
Includes recommendations on DNA tests and tools and how to analyze and use your results. The author also provides tips on how to reach out to potential relatives and discusses some excellent case studies.

Family Tree Factbook
A handy, well-designed guide that covers all of the basics of genealogy research.

Family Tree Historical Newspapers Guide
An in-depth look at how to find and use newspapers in your genealogy research. Includes helpful case studies and international resources too.

The Family Tree Scottish Genealogy Guide
Learn about the different types of Scottish records and how to access them. This book covers Scottish-specific research strategies and tips for breaking down your "brick walls."

Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com
Everything you need to know about Ancestry.com!

Books to break down your brick walls

Do you want to improve your genealogy research skills this year? Here are a few new(ish) books to help you master new techniques in the new year.

Advanced Genealogy Research Techniques by George G. Morgan
This book is all about breaking down your brick walls. The authors describe how to reexamine the evidence you have, how to use little-known resources, and how to develop research strategies to address your unique specific problems.

The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine T. Bettinger
This is the most comprehensive guide on DNA and genealogy. Understand the basics of DNA testing and how to interpret and incorporate your DNA results into your research.

How to Use Evernote for Genealogy by Kerry Scott
Learn how to organize your research (and your life!) with this helpful note-taking app. Store, organize, and share your documents, notes, photos, and audio files with Evernote.

Organize Your Genealogy by Drew Smith
One of my favorites! This excellent guide will help you organize not just your physical and digital files but also your research process, correspondence, research trips, and your educational goals.

The Troubleshooter's Guide To Do-It-Yourself Genealogy by W. Daniel Quillen
Go beyond the basics of genealogy research. Quillen provides in-depth explanations of records and advanced research techniques.

Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com by Nancy Hendrickson
Explore all of Ancestry's vast collections and master the best search techniques for finding your ancestors. Also discusses Ancestry Family Trees and AncestryDNA.

Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.org by Dana McCullough
Discover the best research strategies for using FamilySearch. Learn about their offline resources, family trees, and more.

Common People by Alison Light

If you need inspiration on how to write a good family history, I highly recommend Common People: In Pursuit of My Ancestors by Alison Light. It is exactly what a family history should be.

Light recounts the history of her family not just through anecdotes and data taken from census records but she recreates the world of the working poor in which her family lived. She researches workhouses, insane asylums, slums, and pauper’s graves. She describes the lives of bricklayers, Baptist preachers, domestic servants, and those in the navy. She reads local histories to understand how the geography of a place shaped her ancestors’ lives. Through Light’s research, she gains a better understanding of her ancestors and the worlds they inhabited.

I’ve always felt that while doing genealogy, you learn just as much about the history of society by the records your family leaves behind as you do about your ancestors--and sometimes, you may end up learning more about society than you do about your own family. Light demonstrates that genealogy is more than just names and dates but is really about bringing to light the lives of the “common people” and how politics, wars, religion and geography have affected the lives of everyday citizens.

This book also demonstrates why it's important to read local histories and to do your historical research while doing genealogy!

NEW BOOK: TRUE MIRACLES WITH GENEALOGY

True Miracles With Genealogy, vol. 2 / compiled by Anne Bradshaw -- c2011.
929.1 TRU

This book contains 58 stories about the author's personal connection with her ancestors.  Each story describes ways in which a genealogical puzzle was solved through interactions with the ancestors themselves.  Each story is unique, and involves a different kind of mysterious experience.  Anne's accounts are enjoyable to read, and contain interesting genealogical background as well.

New Book: GENEALOGY by George C. Morgan

The new 3rd edition of Genealogy by George C, Morgan is part of the How To Do Everything series, and incorporates the most current information, resources, and approaches in family history research.  This comprehensive book helps you begin your research, expand it,  and go on to more advanced methods and strategies.

Numerous kinds of records are introduced and explored. Important tips are highlighted, and there are many useful illustrations.

Genealogy is available for checkout at 929.1072 MOR.

State Censuses

State censuses are invaluable to genealogists because they fill in gaps left by missing federal censuses. For example, 12 states conducted censuses between 1885 and 1895, any one of which can substitute for that state's missing 1890 federal census. State censuses tend to be opened to the public faster than federal ones; some state censuses taken as recently as 1945 are already available. Many state censuses contain information not found in federal censuses because the census takers asked different questions. For all of these reasons, state censuses can give you a more complete picture of your ancestors and solve genealogical problems. To find out what state censuses exist, what kinds of information they contain, and where they can be found, read State Census Records, by Ann Lainhart, the definitive guide to this major, though vastly under-used, genealogical resource.

The Glenview Library owns State Census Records by Ann Lainhart, find it at 929.373 LAI


(THANK YOU! to Clearfield Publishing for use of this book review.)

Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy

Thank you to Genealogical Publishing Company Genealogy Pointers e-newsletter 11-29-11 for use of the following review:

The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy / by Val D. Greenwood. -- 3rd ed. -- Genealogical Pub. Co., c2000.

"Wills, and probate records in general, may be the most valuable of all genealogical sources. Val Greenwood's highly respected textbook, The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy goes over these in detail.
Wills are fabulous for establishing relationships, and they can help fix the time period an ancestor lived if no other records survived. They can also provide clues to an ancestor's former places of residence, help to distinguish among persons having a common name, alert the researcher to the existence of other kinds of records, establish when a death occurred, and lead the genealogist to elusive information about an ancestor in the records of the executor or sureties to the will.

If you are new to will records, confused about the legal terminology found in wills, or just don't know where to look for probate records, let Val Greenwood come to your rescue. The author of The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, who is an attorney as well as a genealogist, has written two excellent chapters about wills and probate records that should answer all your questions. For example, you will learn what characterizes the various kinds of wills (conjoint, holographic, nuncupative, and unsolemn, etc.), the legal requirements of probate, the proceedings of contested wills, and much more. If you don't know a legator from a legatee or a testator from a testatrix, Greenwood's 12-page glossary of legal terminology is all you'll ever need. And, if you want to know where each of the 50 states maintains its probate records, there's a handy state-by-state table specifying which courts have custody.
Written in a style that is clear and easy to follow, filled with examples from actual records, The Researcher's Guide should be your place of first resort for understanding wills and probate.

The Glenview Public Library owns a copy of The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood.  See it at 929.1 GRE.

Finding Your World War I Ancestor

THANK YOU to Genealogical Publishing Company for the use of the article below. 

The Glenview Public Library owns a copy of The Great War: A Guide to the Service Records of All the World's Fighting Men and Volunteers by Christina K. Schaefer, c1998 Genealogical Pub. Co.
R929.3 SCH GENEALOGY

Below are some insights into how this book can help you research your WWI ancestors:

"Finding Your World War I Ancestor

Suppose family legend has it that your great-grandfather served in the Polish army during World War I. If his service records have survived, you assume you will be able to find them without any trouble. In reality, however, it is not quite that simple.
Between October 1914 and September 1917, for example, some Polish combatants served in the Russian Army. Why? Because, prior to the Russian Revolution, Poland existed as the Duchy of Warsaw within the Russian Empire. Following the establishment of a provisional Polish government in September 1917, the Poles serving for Russia were regrouped into a new Polish army. Or, your ancestor could have been a member of the insurrectionary "Polish Legion" established in Vienna to serve the Empire of Austria-Hungary. Still other Poles served with the German army in Upper Silesia and East Prussia as the Polnische Wermacht, or with a Polish army on the side of France. In short, great-grandfather's service records could conceivably be in Russia, Germany, France, or Hungary, as well as in Poland.
The dispersion of Polish military service records for "The Great War" was not altogether unusual. Following the armistice, the victorious powers carved up the defeated nations and/or their territories. For example, if your Alsace-Lorraine ancestor fought for Germany, his records would have come under French jurisdiction after the Treaty of Versailles. For its part, Denmark acquired Jutland and Schleswig-Holstein from Germany. Similarly, the nations of Finland and Lithuania achieved their independence at the Soviet Union's (Russia's) expense.
Clearly, anyone on the trail of a World War I service record is more likely to be successful if she/he is equipped with a roadmap to the records of that tragic conflict. And roadmap, indeed, is exactly what genealogist Christina K. Schaefer has created in her guidebook The Great War: A Guide to the Service Records of All the World's Fighting Men and Volunteers.
Organized by country, The Great War provides at-a-glance information on the existence of records and how they can be accessed. Each chapter begins with an outline history of a given country's involvement in the conflict as it impacts on the records. The author then lists all extant record groups for that nation's army and navy. So, for example, we are provided with a list of every German army regiment, followed by another list of the capital ships and U-boats that served the Kaiser. The lengthy U.S. chapter lists the national repositories and then record holdings state by state. Each chapter concludes with a breakdown of that nation's military archives and its holdings and a bibliography of suggested further reading.
For researchers who can profit from a brushing-up on their World War I history, Mrs. Schaefer begins the book with a detailed timeline of events from 1914 to 1918. The volume concludes with a number of very useful features: (1) records pertaining to the aftermath of the war (e.g., service records of the Red Cross); (2) a table of the political changes ushered in by the war; and (3) a list of World War I sources available on the Internet at the time of the book's original publication in 1998. "

Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy

New book at the Glenview Public Library...Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy, 2011 Edition, by Gary Mokotoff. -- Avotaynu, c2011.

Call #  929.1089924 MOK

This book introduces the most helpful resources for researching Jewishgenealogy.  It tells you how to interview family members, and ask for photos and documents.  It also discusses the best websites as well as non-internet resources, such as societies and publishers.  There is a special section on Holocaust research.

"The Ultimate Search Book."

New at the Glenview Public Library...The Ultimate Search Book, 2011 Edition: Worldwide Adoption, Genealogy, & Other Search Secrets, by Lori Carangelo.

Call number:   929.1 CAR

This book introduces resources, strategy, and process of searching for missing children and adults, including heirs, war buddies, classmates, etc., with or without a name or  family members, separated due to adoption or divorce.  It covers a range of information, from basic resources to those that are lesser known.

Genealogy Online, 9th ed.

new genealogy book:

Genealogy online / Elizabeth Powell Crowe -- 9th ed. -- McGraw Hill, c2011.
929.1 CRO

This book addresses the basics of beginning a genealogical project, selecting software, and connecting to the Internet.

It also talks about online etiquette, spam, scams, privacy, and copyright. There is a chapter on genealogy education programs and courses, both online and offline, as well as instructions for using chat, mailing lists, electronic newsletters, and newsgroups.

Major sites are introduced, including the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch, Rootsweb, MyFamily.com, and Ellis Island Online.

The author recommends accessing online library catalogs from home before traveling to a particular library. The chapter titled "Around the Web in 80 (or so) Sites" lists notable web sites.

The National Genealogical Society's Genealogical Standards, a description of the forms of electronic genealogical data, a glossary of online-related terms, and a list of emoticons conclude the book.

In Search of Your German Roots

Here is a wonderful resource to help with German family research, owned by the Library and published by Genealogical Pub. Co.

In Search of Your German Roots. Fourth Edition, 4th ed. Updated [2008] by Angus Baxter.
929.1072 BAX

This guide is designed to help you trace your German ancestry not only in Germany but in all the German-speaking areas of Europe. First, it discusses the LDS Church's International Genealogical Index (IGI), which contains hundreds of thousands of entries from German parish registers. Then the narrative takes the reader back to the old country, where sources and archives are discussed in detail, especially Evangelical and Catholic Church records and records of state and city archives. Finally, Mr. Baxter presents a list of family archives, a list of genealogical associations in Germany, a list of German genealogical associations in the U.S., and a bibliography. The 2008 update to the fourth edition includes many websites for these records.

(Thanks to Genealogical Pub. Co. for the use of this description.)

Organizing Your Genealogy Project

Thank you to the Clearfield Company for the following reviews:

If you are beginning to accumulate a fair amount of paper in the early stages of your research, it's probably time to take stock of what you have and how you plan to organize it--even before you enter the information into a computer database--lest you start drowning in an ocean of paper. Our popular author Bill Dollarhide has formulated four simple rules for organizing notes and documents:

1. Use one size of paper for all note-taking---preferably standard 8 ½ x 11 sheets.

2. Separate sheets by the surname of interest. If more than one surname is discussed, make additional copies for those families.

3. Create a surname notebook to store the sheets, and divide the book into sections for the place of origin of the records.

4. Give every sheet a number, so that you can make an index to the records.

Mr. Dollarhide develops each of these tips in detail in his popular book Managing a Genealogical Project. Making excellent use of charts and tables, he goes on to explain the three main types of descendancy numbering systems for genealogy: the Register System, the Record System, and the Henry System. Mr. Dollarhide explains the pros and cons of each system and proposes his own technique for combining Ahnentafel numbering with the Henry System. Managing a Genealogical Project also offers a number of other suggestions for organizing your family history data--with or without a computer. .. One of the most important features of the book is the collection of "Master Forms" (relationship chart, research log, ancestor table, etc.), which you can photocopy over and over again, and use to enter and organize the information you gather by hand.

The Library owns a copy of Managing a Genealogical Project : a Complete Manual for the Management and Organization of Genealogical Materials by William Dollarhide.

It can be checked out. The call number is 929.1 DOL

The following books also offer suggestions for organizing your genealogy project:

The Complete Beginner's Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program by Karen Clifford shows you how to get started in your family history research; how to organize your family papers; how to enter information into a genealogy computer program so that you can easily manage, store, and retrieve your data; how to analyze the data and place it in various tables, charts, and forms; and how to put together a family history notebook--all the while using conventional record sources with a modern search and retrieval system.

Check it out at 929.1 CLI

The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val Greenwood incorporates the latest thinking on genealogy and computers, specifically the relationship between computer technology (the Internet and CD-ROM) and the timeless principles of good genealogical research.

Check it out at 929.1 GRE

Tax Lists

The Library owns two wonderful books that can help you advance your genealogical research by using tax lists.

The Sleuth Book For Genealogists : strategies for more successful family history research, by Emily Anne Croom, 929.1072 CRO. There is also a Reference copy at R929.1072 CRO GENEALOGY.

It is brimming with wonderful checklists, case studies, and novel approaches for using any number of genealogical source records.

The following brief excerpt from a review of this wonderful book is about tax records:

"Strategies for Using Tax Records, by Emily Anne Croom
...A number of states and towns have preserved tax records that date to their early years; others have not been so diligent. Nevertheless, the genealogist needs to use them whenever they exist... The surviving records are usually found in county courthouses or in state archives. Many have been microfilmed and are available from the Family History Library...Tax records are kin to land records because residents paid taxes on land they owned, as well as on slaves, horses, cattle, oxen, personal property, and luxury items... In some cases, specific items were taxed in a given year, such as certain items of furniture, mirrors, and window curtains in Virginia in 1815..."

The other book is The Beginner's Guide to Using Tax Lists, by Cornelius Carroll. 929.1 CAR

"This is a primer for making the best genealogical use of tax lists... [The author] differentiates between tax lists, quit rents, tithables, militia lists, censuses, and similar records and the laws that applied to them. Then, by focusing on the tax lists of Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, he demonstrates how tax lists can be used for determining parentage, birth and death dates, indentured servitude, slavery, manumission, and racial status. In conjunction with other records, tax lists can be used to help determine the parentage of a female, the date of a marriage, migration routes, and the accuracy of family traditions..."

State Census Records

The Glenview Public Library owns the following book, published by Clearfield:

State census records by Ann S. Lainhart

929.373 LAI

R929.373 LAI GENEALOGY

Ann Lainhart's inventory of state census records is the first comprehensive list of state census records ever published. State by state, year by year, often county by county and district by district, she shows the researcher what is available in state census records, when it is available, and what one might expect to find in the way of data.

Read a fuller review.

British Genealogy Book

Dick Eastman's Genealogy Blog contains a book review about Ancestral Trails, a book owned by the Glenview Public Library and available for checkout at call number 929.1 HER and in the Reference Room at R929.1 HER GENEALOGY.

Here is an excerpt from dick's review:

"Ancestral Trails is an 896-page, 6-inch-by-9-inch paperback...jam-packed with genealogical research guidance. It also has many black-and-white images to illustrate the information presented within the text.

...The book gives background information about past generations by describing virtually every class of record in every repository and library in Britain. In order to find the correct repositories, you often have to first understand why a particular record would be found there. Herber does this well, describing historical settings and the purpose of each repository...

"Ancestral Trails provides detailed explanations of census records, parish registers, marriage records, wills and much...the new appendix on 'Web sites for family historians.' Herber lists the names and URLs (addresses) of several hundred web sites that can be useful for British genealogy research although he does not describe any of them in detail."

Social Networking For Genealogists

The Glenview Public Library has purchased the following book. I expect it to enhance your genealogical research, and help you find new ways to communicate and share with other family history researchers:

Social Networking for Genealogists by Drew Smith

Genealogical Pub. Co., c2009

R929.10285 SMI GENEALOGY

(A circulating copy is on order)

Contents: RSS -- Tags -- Message boards and mailing lists -- Blogs -- Wikis -- Collaborative editing -- Photo and video sharing -- Social bookmarking -- Sharing personal libraries -- Podcasts -- Social networking for its own sake -- Virtual worlds -- Genealogy-specific social networking.

This book describes the wide array of 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. From blogs and wikis to general social networking sites that have genealogy applications, such as Facebook, and virtual worlds such as Second Life, author Drew Smith shows you how to incorporate these powerful new tools into your family history research.

This book is about the type of social networking that has been made possible by the development of international computer networks, the availability of network access to most homes (especially broadband access), the creation of websites dedicated to particular kinds of networking (posting photos, viewing and commenting on videos, seeing what books friends have in their libraries, etc.), and the ease of participating in these sites without having to be a computer expert. It identifies those kinds of social networking sites and services that will be of the most interest to genealogists.

THE AUTHOR: 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.

Google Your Family Tree

The Glenview Public Library has purchased the followiong book that can help you with your genealogy:

Google your family tree : unlock the hidden power of Google by Daniel M. Lynch.
929.1 LYN

There is also a copy in the Reference Genealogy collection.

This book explains how to use the many powerful capabilities contained within Google to jumpstart a family history search, in simple, easy-to-understand language.

It teaches you how to use basic and advanced search operators to filter results; find puvlished information about your family history; discover visuals to help illustrate your family story using Google Images and Video; explore your ancestral homelands with Google Maps and Google Earth; ; conduct research in historical newspapers using the Google News Archive; set up automated searches using Googlle Alerts; use language tools to find and translate foreign content; and make the most of free websites for genealogy.

Examples of advanced Google searches you may not have tried before include the Google Phonebook search; intext, intitle, and inurl searches; and organizing your research using Google Notebook.

The appendix includes five sections about beginninig genealogy, best web sites, information about internet search engines, and a concise summary of Google commands and syntax with their use for genealogy.