Databases for the Study of Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy: 1699-1860 [Hardcover]

Gwendolyn Midlo Hall (Editor)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press; CD-Rom edition (December 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807124826
• ISBN-13: 978-0807124826
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,512,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for the faint-hearted--but better than the alternative!, October 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Databases for the Study of Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy: 1699-1860 (Hardcover)

This single CD ROM comes without substantial supporting documentation, although there are some introductory text files that you can print yourself. As the previous reviewers state, the data is NOT user friendly. I was able to easily open all the files using MS Excel and Access (the native form of the files is dBase), but it's still difficult to find your way around. After all, there are more than 100,000 records. Still, if you're serious about genealogy, this info is far more complete than anything you're likely to gather on your own. Also, after many, MANY hours of sifting through handwritten records in small town, LA, I can't tell you how nice it was to sit in my office and tell the computer to do a keyword search. Hopefully there will be a more user-friendly product in the future. Meanwhile, having this is far better than nothing. At $45 it's a complete steal--if you're committed to making it work. The detail is stunning! Not only can you find African origins, but also personality details, histories, and absolute horrors. I can't believe that the slave owning society of that time was so honest about its monstrosity. It's all there. (Next time you hear some crap about how "our family was good to our slaves," read all about it.)

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Users will require pre-loaded d-base software for this, September 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Databases for the Study of Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy: 1699-1860 (Hardcover)

I just received this database and was anxious to explore it for my own research in similar areas. Unfortunately, the CD requires its user to have pre-loaded database software, which, had it been explicitly stated, would have prevented me from purchasing it. I now own a $45 CD that is effectively useless unless/until I purchase an additional software package that, given what database software costs, I cannot afford. Users should be aware of this.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, May 20, 2001

By 

Garland Joseph (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Databases for the Study of Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy: 1699-1860 (Hardcover)

I found this to be an excellent reference. This data is more valuable than the 45 dollar purchase price. I noticed that the low reviews of this product are a result of lack of software functionality. Fortunately I come from an IT background and was able to access the data within minutes. I find it disappointing that this product received some low reviews, especially given the state of available data for slavery genealogy. In view of this, I thought I would offer a little assistance in accessing the data on the CD without purchasing a database package like MS ACCESS. [1] download a shareware tool like DBFViewer2000 This will allow you to access the .dbf files contained on the CD. You can do searches through the DBF viewer, but I recommend the following steps... [2] you can optionally export select fields of the .dbf files using DBFViewer2000 to text files. [3] Once you have the text files, you can use the dos FIND command to search through the file and locate desired records (specify FIND/N to get line numbers). [4] You can then use the line number in DBFViewer2000 to go to the exact records you found. I prefer the use of command line tools like FIND because I can see more than 1 record at a time, as opposed to a screen of information for one record. Hope this helps.