Customer Reviews

How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy

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When I first began researching my genealogy in the 1980's, I made sure that I read all the "how-to-do-it" books in print. I had quickly learned that I was becoming involved in something more than looking at a census or filling out a chart. Learning from others with more experience helped me develop my research skills and saved me from a lot of trial and error learning. As genealogy has become one of the most popular pursuits, the need for guidance has grown, too. The number of those "how-to" books has increased, but some offer more than others, especially since technology has come to play such a large role in our research. This book fills a real need.

From beginning with home resources to making use of all the technology available, George gives his readers 472 pages of first class advice and information. The book is intensely readable, and the examples are clear and to the point. Both the beginner and the advanced researcher will benefit from chapters on using the Internet, locating advanced records, and following alternate paths to find the records you need.

One of the best features of the book is the chapter "Plan A Very Successful Genealogical Research Trip". When spending the time, effort, and cash to get to a research locality, we want to be as successful as possible. Planning is the key. George gives step-by-step directions to get prepared and uses practical examples to illustrate just how to do this. I know I will be more successful on my next trip because of things I learned here.

This book is certainly comprehensive... it covers the expected range of genealogy topics, from vital records to selecting technology tools and planning a genealogy research trip.

But, for all the value that thorough and linear thinking has in the field of genealogy research, Morgan's writing style is unnecessarily tedious. For example, when talking about pedigree charts, he describes how you write your own name on line number one, then actually goes out of the way to explain to us that "the next pair of lines is numbered 2 and 3" before describing to us what these next lines are all about. And though he does devote some text to technology, this is discussed mostly in separate chapters at the end and he fails to incorporate as a central theme the role technology can play in alleviating the tedium of research.

In short, this book could have been written in half as many pages without losing much on substance. It's definitely not the kind of book you can read from cover-to-cover, even chapter-by-chapter. I found the Genealogy Handbook by Ellen Galford to be a much better starting point. However, given the comprehensiveness of this book and its decent index, this book still maintains some value as a reference.

As a genealogy instructorHow to Do Everything with Your Genealogy is one of the best recommendations I can make for new and intermediate genealogists. This book is easy to read, flows really well and has personal examples by the author inserted throughout that shows how the author followed his own advice and was successful in his searches... That is key to a good how to book in any genre....are the steps explained in such a way that it is easy to duplicate with your own research. This book is that.

I am so pleased with this book!. It gives the genealogist concrete information on research, organizing and presenting your work. Personal examples are very helpful. I wouls recommend this book to any family historian.

George Morgan has done it again! This book describes everything a genealogist needs to know about what to actually do to get the information and then what to do with it when you think you have enough information. Easy to read and very user friendly!

I'm new at genealogy, but I'm having a lot of fun learning about my ancestors. This book explains absolutely everything about locating your family in history, particularly how to use the internet to find out about your ancestors. Read a chapter, then follow its summary to locate a great, great, great grandparent.

This is a great "how to" book for beginning genealogists and a good reference book for anyone searching for their ancestors.