Customer Reviews

Unpuzzling Your Past: A Basic Guide to Genealogy

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Croom's book offers excellent advice for beginners and genealogists with some experience. The workbook gives helpfuls lists such as "Where Do I find That?" and gives sources for birth, death and marriage information. It also explains the censuses and Soundex very well.

The appendices list archives, libraries and genealogical societies that are very helpful and up to date. There is also an excellent list of available state censuses.

This book by Emily Croom is THE best book I've seen for the beginning genealogist. The information is very concise and well written. I am really impressed by Ms. Croom's use personal examples to explain the research concepts that she is talking about. This book is a MUST for the beginner.

This is by far the best book general methods book I have found. I highly recommend it to anyone beginning genealogical research and to those who are veterans, as well. I have given several to friends with a fledgling interest in genealogical research. It is indispensible for the beginner & I highly recommend it to everyone. Organized in a logical, easy to follow manner; not too technical; practical -- just plain good.

Excellent information that I've found very useful as I'm beginning to learn basic research methods. My only complaint is that these editions become outdated fairly quickly and constantly require you to buy a new edition. Which might be understandable except I'm having no problem learning from the edition published in 1983. Much of the information clearly would be unchanged, so there seems little reason (aside from cynical tarket marketing) in plunking down a new $20 every few years only to get some updated appendix information or addresses easily found on the internet. Oh, and save your $16 on the workbook, stop being lazy, fire up your word processor, and create your own worksheets (Croom even generously teaches you how -- except for that cynical tarket marketing part). I really don't hold Croom responsible for this anymore than I would hold my grandmother responsible for not understanding the depths to which the marketing people for corporate publishers will stoop to suck money from both readers and authors. I've talked to Emily Croom via Barnes and Noble University and she's an excellent teacher and an obviously kind and patient woman who is very knowledgeable about genealogy research methods. Trust me, I thought I was unteachable! But do your own legwork, find another way to donate money to Croom for being the genealogy elder that she is, and keep your wallet away from what is clearly a corporate marketing scam of constant updates.

Unpuzzling Your Past is a very helpful guide to finding your ancestors if you are into genealogy. It gives basic facts of where to find names and how to trace family members through the clues you find. It is useful for all levels of research. Forms to record your information are available for copying and use in keeping track of what you find. I especially liked the section on reading the handwriting of the past. It provided incite into how letters used to be formed in old documents and made reading them much easier.

this is a great book for people getting started with serious genealogy research. The new version (4th edition) gives useful tips for incorporating internet searching

I love Emily Croom's book Unpuzzling Your Past. The author helps anyone who is doing a study of their family history. The book has easy to follow suggestions as well as giving resources to assist in tracking ancestors. I would recommend Puzzling Your Past to beginners as well as to those who are more seasoned genealogists.

This book certainly rates far over the first edition of Unpuzzling your past.
I had purchased one years and years ago for my mother.

I especially like the extra information that is covered in this book.
Very informative.
I had ordered one for a cousin; liked it so well, ordered another for myself.
Now I'm ordering two for Genealogical 'friends'. Great book!!!

Unpuzzling The Past is like a jigsaw puzzle, one piece at a time. It gives readers the information and tools to learn to research and achieve the best results. The book focus on answering how to questions, encourages you to use family and public records, promotes sound research methods and illustrates the process with pertinent research examples. The book teaches that genealogy and familys go hand in hand.

Unpuzzling Your Past is a great reference book for both novice and veteran genealogists. I highly recommend it for all beginners as it's comprehensive and easy to understand. For those who've been researching for years it's a good book to refer to when the need arises.