{"id":1981,"date":"2020-09-17T09:45:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T16:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2020-09-17T09:45:44","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T16:45:44","slug":"genealogists-and-home-libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/?p=1981","title":{"rendered":"Genealogists and Home Libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/I am in the 5%.\n<\/p>\n

Every week the New England Historic Genealogical Society sends around an electronic newsletter called The Weekly Genealogist<\/em>. It always contains a survey, and last week’s question asked how many books are in personal genealogy libraries.\n<\/p>\n

I answered that I have 251-1000 genealogy books, and only 5% of the respondents fell into that category. The largest group, 20%, had 26-50 books.\n<\/p>\n

Luckily for me, I did not have to purchase all my books, although my husband\/tech advisor still grumbles that he had to buy and install bookcases for them. I inherited most of what I have from my dad’s cousin.\n<\/p>\n

I rarely use most of them, but I like having them around for when I need them. I do keep a few, well-thumbed references on my desk that I consult regularly:\n<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Black’s Law Dictionary<\/em>. I received a copy of the 1891 first edition for Christmas one year, and it really helps for finding definitions of unfamiliar words in old legal documents.\n<\/li>\n
  2. Evidence Explained <\/em>by Elizabeth Shown Mills. I regularly turn to this reference when creating source citations.\n<\/li>\n
  3. The Handybook for Genealogists<\/em>, ninth edition. I won this as a door prize once, and it provides a quick reference for county information across the United States.\n<\/li>\n
  4. Historical and Genealogical Atlas and Guide to Barnstable County, Massachusetts. <\/em>This gem has great, detailed maps of the towns on Cape Cod.\n<\/li>\n
  5. A Primer for The Master Genealogist <\/em>by Terry Reigel. I still use the no-longer-available TMG for my genealogical database, and this wonderful handbook gives clear instructions for using all its intricacies.\n<\/li>\n
  6. Rand McNally Road Atlas. <\/em>My ancestors lived all over the United States, and I find it useful to consult the maps of their states.\n<\/li>\n
  7. The Reeds of Ashmore <\/em>by Michael Hayden. My distant cousin Michael put this together in 1988 as part of his doctoral dissertation. It traces our Reed lineage from colonial times. I use his book to determine how modern-day descendants fit into my family tree. In recent years, it has become helpful in determining my relationship to DNA matches.\n<\/li>\n
  8. A Research Guide for Norwegian Genealogy, sixth edition <\/em>by Carol A. Culbertson and Jerry Paulson, editors. This book is packed with information about Norway, Norwegians, and how to do Norwegian genealogy. It includes a useful glossary of Norwegian genealogical terms.\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I like having print resources available. In seconds I can use these familiar tools to lay my hands on the information I need without having to take time to scour the internet for it.\n<\/p>\n

    Most of the people who responded to The Weekly Genealogist<\/em> survey had fewer than 50 books. I would fall into that category, too, if it were not for the inheritance from Dad’s cousin.\n<\/p>\n

    Few of the newsletter readers have the large library I do. I am glad to have it during these months of the pandemic when I cannot visit libraries in person to find sources that have not been digitized.\n<\/p>\n

    I enjoyed taking this survey to see where I fall on the spectrum of researchers and their books.\n<\/p>\n

    \n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I am in the 5%. Every week the New England Historic Genealogical Society sends around an electronic newsletter called The Weekly Genealogist. It always contains a survey, and last week’s question asked how many books are in personal genealogy libraries. I answered that I have 251-1000 genealogy books, and only 5% of the respondents fell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1982,"href":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions\/1982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogyjottings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}