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| A shelf in my personal library, with some compiled genealogy books |
I’m writing this blog post because of all the email,
comments and Facebook messages I have received in the last two weeks due to my three-part
series “Batchelder Do-Over” ” (By the way, stay tuned for my upcoming “Surname
Saturday” post on my "new" BATCHELDER lineage).
Then I received even more email due
to my blog post last week on “My Ancestors in Genealogy Books: A Compiled Genealogy Bibliography". There seems to be
a lot of misconceptions about these genealogy books. I want to share my pros and cons on using
them.
First comment – “They
are often unsourced.” Well… actually most
compiled genealogy books from the end of the twentieth century until today are
sourced, Yay! The famous genealogist Donald Lines Jacobus lead the way in teaching and demonstrating how to accurately source genealogy books. His first books in the 1930s have little documentation ( for example The Bulkeley Genealogy, 1933), but his books in the 1970s were much better. My favorite sourced genealogy books include the wonderful Silver Book series from the General Society of Mayflower
Descendants. Another good set of books
is Robert Charles Anderson’s Great Migration Series. All of them, from his
three part Great Migration Begins, to
his seven volume Great Migration:
Immigrants to New England 1634 – 1635, to his directories and other books.
These are the standard most authors try to copy today.
Second comment - Yes,
“They are often unsourced”. But
wait! How can we find a work
around? As for those unsourced books,
did you know that many, many authors of these nineteenth century and early
twentieth century genealogy books have donated their notes to libraries and
archives? I have often perused these
manuscripts at the New England Historic Genealogical Society library in
Boston. Just look at what I found about
the BATCHELDER family recently (see the links below) in manuscripts revising an old 1898 book at the New Hampshire Historical Society library and at the Lane Public Library in Hampton, New Hampshire. Check libraries, historical societies and genealogical societies for donated materials on published (and sometimes unpublished) books.
Third comment – “But
they haven’t done my family in a book!”
How do you know? Did you check
all libraries? Did you check Munsell’s Index, also known as Index to American Genealogies for
everything published before 1908? Did
you know that The Greenlaw Index of the
New England Historic Genealogical Society is two volumes of all the books in
their library printed 1900 – 1940? (Or
you can check their card catalog online free, even if you aren’t a member) Did
you try WorldCat.org to see what all the other libraries have? The Library of Congress https://catalog.loc.gov/
? Or the Genealogical Index of the Newbury Library http://www.newberry.org/genealogical-index-newberry
? Another good index is American Genealogical Biographical Index,
Volumes 1 – 186, which is online at Ancestry.com (this is continuously updated) Lastly, do you check in genealogy journals to
see what new publications are being printed?
Do you read in genealogy magazines to see what new compiled genealogies
are being planned, and who is looking for information? Have you looked to see what is out of print? Leave no stone unturned.
Fourth comment
- “No one has written about my JONES
family” or “That book is not my JONESes” There was a famous author named Ken Stevens
who used to write up books on families named WILSON in the New England area. He
has many WILSON books on the shelves of the NEHGS library. Of course, he didn’t have my WILSON family of Danvers, Massachusetts written up in a
book. So, I wrote to Mr. Stevens and lo
and behold he had lots of notes on my WILSONs (he hadn’t gotten around to publishing
that book yet). And he shared his notes and agreed that my
lineage back to the immigrant Robert Wilson (1630 – 1675) was correct. Just as good as a book! Ken Stevens died before publishing my
WILSONs, but I’ll always cherish his opinions.
ASK!
Fifth comment
- “I can’t find my ancestors in a book,
and I’ve looked everywhere.” Ok, then
your next step is to check journal articles through scholarly indexes such as JSTOR
https://www.jstor.org/ I also like to check the journals online
at the websites of genealogical societies such as the New England Historic Genealogical
Society https://www.americanancestors.org/index.aspx
(members only). You can find back issues
of some journals on the HathiTrust Digital Library https://www.hathitrust.org/
Since I focus on New England, I like
to find the latest research in Martin Hollick’s book New Englanders in the 1600s (however, it was last updated in
2012. Is anyone planning another update
soon?) Are there similar books for other US regions?
Sixth comment – “I
don’t live in New England. The South
doesn’t have many compiled genealogy books”
True, but this is changing. And although
New England seems to have more, this is due to the age of our original colonies
and the high density population. Population
percentage wise, it probably only beats out other US regions by a small
number. Check around to see what you can find.
Seventh comment –
“Only the old compiled genealogies are online.”
This may seem to be true because Google books and Archive.org only digitize the older books due
to copyright. But have you seen the LDS
initiative to put their library of books online at FamilySearch.org? Check the Family Search catalog at https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/search
or even better, search their book collection (which includes books at other
libraries around the US) at this link: https://books.familysearch.org/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?mode=Advanced&vid=FHD_PUBLIC&&dscnt=0&dstmp=1536952925883
Eighth comment -
“I’ll take what’s in the book as proof.
I’m not a professional, and the author is a professional”. Hold on!
Did you read reviews on this book?
How do you know the author was a professional, and not just someone with
a hobby like you? Remember Gustave Anjou and his completely mythical genealogies? Do your own evaluation
of the book and ask other trusted friends for their opinions on your own conclusions. You might be a better genealogist than you
give yourself credit for!
Caveat – even sourced
genealogy books can have errors. Use
your own judgement and check all books for clues! Finding your family in a book is only the
start of your research.
Batchelder Family Do Over, Part 1 (with links to parts 2 and 3):
My Ancestors in Genealogy Books: A Compiled Genealogy
Bibliography:
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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “Thoughts on Using Compiled
Genealogy Books”, Nutfield Genealogy,
posted September 20, 2018, (
If the record does not identify a source document that you can verify, then it's only a suggestion. The maternal side of my family published several books, all in the Mormon collection in Salt Lake City. The first author invented his earliest ancestor and every other book after that used it as gospel without verifying anything. Errors galore.
ReplyDeleteVictorian-era town histories can be just as bad.
ReplyDelete