Customer Reviews

Genealogy Starter Kit 2nd Edition

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There are plenty of genealogy method books for novices out there, some quite good and some decidedly mediocre, but Dollarhide proves once again that it's possible to present most of the how-to information necessary for getting started in only 48 pages, and at a very modest price. Beginning with a basic pedigree chart and the question "What do you know?" he leads the reader through a seven-step process of finding out the essentials of what you *don't* know, including family interviews, writing for death certificates and following up the leads they contain, burrowing into the federal census and the Family History Library, and then moving on to state and county records. At that point, the beginner should be well under weigh, with a lengthy list of research goals to pursue. The second part of the book introduces the wider arena of the National Archives, Social Security records, renting microfilms, and dealing with professional researchers. A state-by-state selected and annotated listing of "resource centers" provides a good basic checklist, as does a list of recommended reference books. A handful of blank master forms (on the Dollarhide model, naturally) are intended for photocopying. Surprisingly, though, except for a few Website addresses, the author takes no notice at all of "computer genealogy" or the Internet, though the Net is the first point of contact for many would-be genealogists these days. Still, this would be a good textbook for a Beginning Genealogy class.