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Genealogy is a hobby for the young and old. It is very rewarding for many people to discover their roots. We have always felt that knowing ones roots helps you realize where you fit in life or perhaps why you are here. This may sound strange to many people who don’t think of such things but the truth remains that a big percentage of people do want to know where they fit in, or what the purpose of life is. This is a hobby for the young, old and young at heart. Knowing your roots helps you figure yourself out. As well you will learn a bunch of history along the journey.
Each time you discover another piece of the family history puzzle, in United States records, you uncover a piece of American history from a human perspective. A nation’s history is a collective story of the individual people’s histories. To find the fullest meaning of a nation’s culture and what it means or how it fits in as well as how you fit in, you have to study the history of the people who helped form the country. You have to get to the roots of the family story as it relates to your country.
Many people have encountered enormous satisfaction while tracing their family history. Some have a sketchy trace that goes back for centuries whereas others prefer to gather more detailed information on just a few generations back, compiling personal stories and photographs. Both types of family history research can prove exciting. Each time you find a new person or new fact it is exciting. To find records rich with information that would have gone unnoticed or untouched is exciting and a part of history. The magnetism of doing genealogy research is in the diversity of what can be found and the excitement each new find brings.
There is some disappointment or frustration in doing genealogy. Genealogy researchers all have in common the frustration that comes with imagining that there is something else that could have been found if there was only more time. We learn to live with this torture and in spite of it we keep going in as many directions as we can with a strong curiosity.
As s serious genealogy researcher, you need a lot of dedication, a true love of the past and even a fanatical pursuit of genealogy clues and leads. As ancestors become real people in our minds, there is a sense of fulfillment. Yet, there may be some disappointment if we realize that now there are even more leads yet to follow. The path never ends for us although it may get foggy. The serious genealogy researcher must also plunge themselves into the archives of libraries, societies and repositories, ignoring their daily life routine, many times. The commitment must run deep and lack of sleep is common. A sense of purpose is what drives us on day and night, the curiosity never seeming to end. The family history researcher must be an optimist as well. Being an optimist allows us to continue on with a willingness to research every new lead, thinking the answer must be around the corner. This is the kind of person you learn to be once you become fully involved in genealogy research.
Oral history, bibles, journals and letters are all traditions that are part of family history, and carried down from one generation to the next. This makes genealogy a family affair with a connection between generations. Without this rich history of traditions, we would not have any idea of our cultures or how it, and we, fit in. The re-telling of family stories from one person to the next is as old as time. This is part of being human. Passing on family history is how a family feels a sense of ancestral unity through time. Older members of the family can serve the very important role of passing on known information to the younger members. This is what genealogy is.
The reasons mentioned here are why so many people find it exciting, rewarding and important to do genealogy. Some day you or your children may experience the addiction and draw of doing family history research. Then you will be the one that passes on the family story about your ancestors and descendants. It is an adventure for a lifetime.
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The two most highly needed books for genealogy research and recording are:
Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian
The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, Third Edition
The publisher describes this monumental work like this:
Over 100,000 copies sold!
“Recommended as the most comprehensive how-to book on American genealogical and local history research.”–Library Journal
In every field of study there is one book that rises above the rest in stature and authority and becomes the standard work in the field. In genealogy that book is Val Greenwood’s Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy.
Arguably the best book ever written on American genealogy, it is the text of choice in colleges and universities or wherever courses in American genealogy are taught. Of the dozens of textbooks, manuals, and how-to books that have appeared over the past twenty-five years, it is the one book that is consistently praised for setting a standard of excellence.
In a word, The Researcher’s Guide has become a classic. While it instructs the researcher in the timeless principles of genealogical research, it also identifies the various classes of records employed in that research, groups them in convenient tables and charts, gives their location, explains their uses, and evaluates each of them in the context of the research process. Designed to answer practically all the researcher’s needs, it is both a textbook and an all-purpose reference book. And it is this singular combination that makes The Researcher’s Guide the book of choice in any genealogical investigation. It is also the reason why if you can afford to buy only one book on American genealogy in a lifetime, this has to be it.
This new 3rd edition 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. It also includes a new chapter on the property rights of women, a revised chapter on the evaluation of genealogical evidence, and updated information on the 1920 census. Little else has changed, or needs to be changed, because the basics of genealogy remain timeless and immutable. This 3rd edition of The Researcher’s Guide, then, is a clear, comprehensive, and up-to-date account of the methods and aims of American genealogy–an essential text for the present generation of researchers–and no sound genealogical project is complete without it.
EDITORIAL REVIEWS
“Greenwood’s guide has long been regarded as the best of its kind, a text and reference work for anyone who is doing American genealogical research beyond the beginner’s level…Purchase of Greenwood’s guide is recommended to any serious genealogist, and every genealogical library should have this latest edition on its shelves.”–THE NEW YORK GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD (July 2000), p. 229.
“…this work is still the single best reference and text for the serious beginning genealogist.”–AMERICAN REFERENCE BOOKS ANNUAL (1991).
“Greenwood’s book is easy to read and covers a broad enough spectrum of resources that readers are equipped to get started with a minimum investment of study time. For those who want to learn how to build pedigrees and reconstruct family groups, tying them from one generation to the next, this book is an excellent guide…This book also has value to other researchers. Historians, demographers, and sociologists studying people in the past will find that this book will provide important guidance in assessing which records will provide the facts needed. Government document librarians will appreciate having this book to refer to in answering questions about censuses and other sources created by national and state government. It is still one of the best guidebooks on genealogical research available. It is an important title to include in collections of libraries with patrons interested in genealogical research.”–GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS REVIEW, Vol. 18 (1991).
“Seventeen years ago this Reviewer wrote: ‘It is impossible to recommend this book too highly. It is indispensable for anyone interested in genealogical research.’ The verdict stands.”–THE VIRGINIA GENEALOGIST, Vol. 34, No. 3 (July-September 1990).
“…this modestly priced classic remains the outstanding text on American genealogy. It belongs in every library whose patrons explore genealogy.”–LIBRARY JOURNAL (April 1, 1990).
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