I have been an avid reader since childhood. My parents, my aunts, and my grandmother read the newspaper from beginning to end and consumed scores of books each year. They encouraged me to read at an early age and spent a great deal of time helping me hone my reading skills. They were greatly assisted by the town librarian, a dear friend who also happened to be our neighbor across the street. It is therefore no coincidence that I usually have several books in progress in various parts of the house, including genealogical titles.

Good genealogists are always seeking to expand their knowledge. This includes the areas of record types, methodologies, and history. In this electronic publishing age, it is gratifying to see vast numbers of new book titles being released every month. This makes selecting good books in each of the categories I mentioned a difficult task. However, in the interest of helping you find a few good books to wile away your summer vacation, I'd like to recommend six books that I have found particularly interesting. (Please check the bibliography at the end of the column for publishing details.)

Sources of Alternative Records
After a while, we all exhaust the more obvious resources: the birth, marriage, death, and other vital records; the census microfilm; and the obituaries and tombstones. We need some "fresh meat" to research, as it were. And along comes a brand new book by Laura Szucs Pfeiffer titled Hidden Sources: Family History in Unlikely Places. It includes articles for more than one hundred different record types and/or resources that most family history researchers may never have encountered before.

Each resource is concisely described in easy-to-understand verbiage, including what information the resource may contain, how and where to look for the records, and how the records can help your research. Photographs and/or illustrations are included for every resource to give you an idea of how the document might appear. In addition, each entry includes selected recommended readings and Web sites of special interest to help you locate additional reference materials. This has become one of my instant favorite books! It makes for fascinating reading, and I think you will find it an excellent addition to your reference collection.

Accounts of Our Ancestors' Times
The study of historical events that occurred during our ancestors' lives, and the details of their everyday lives, has always fascinated me. Did you know, for instance, that "about twenty-five percent of all women were killed in Colonial America as a result of cooking accidents, notably burns from long dresses and active fires"? This is only one of many hundreds of fascinating pieces of information found in two books: Dale Taylor's The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Colonial America from 1607-1783 and Marc McCutcheon's The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s. Both books describe life in the context of the culture of their respective time periods, including food and drink, adults' and children's clothing, money and coinage, government and politics, health and medicine, marriage and family, religion, occupations and employment, arts and science, and amusements and pastimes. The books richly define many of the colloquialisms and dialectal terminology of the day as well. Both provide insight into our ancestors' everyday lives. (There are, by the way, other books in this series, including one about life in Renaissance England and one about life the Wild West.)

In addition, if you are among the multitude of genealogists whose ancestors lived during colonial times in Massachusetts, you will revel in the republication of George Francis Dow's book, Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Available in paperback, this book was originally published in 1935 and is considered a classic study of life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s. Shelters and dwellings, clothing, manners and customs, home furnishing, farming, trades and manufacturing, use of wampum and paper money, herbal and medicinal treatments, and crimes and punishments are among the topics discussed. Photographs and illustrations abound, as do appendixes containing lists of products manufactured and traded in the colony, sample estate inventories, and other interesting documents. This is a must-read for Massachusetts Bay Colony descendants and provides insight into life in the 1600s in New England.

Confederate Research
In my discussions with family historians who are searching for their Confederate soldier ancestors, I find many who are ill-equipped to conduct effective research. Many have no historical knowledge of the conflict to guide them through a chronological search for their ancestors—from enlistment to injury, death, or discharge. Many are unaware of the various records that were created throughout the war. James C. Neagles, one of the most knowledgeable military records experts alive, has written Confederate Research Sources: A Guide to Archive Collections, one of the most definitive books on the subject. By reading this book from cover to cover, you will gain exceptional insight into Confederate resources and save yourself countless hours lost in wrong turns and dead ends.

Neagles starts with a brief historical overview of the formation of the Confederacy and a chronological account of the important campaigns and historical events. He then describes how to effectively search for records, first in the Confederate states, then in the border states, and finally at the National Archives. You will learn that there is very little duplication of materials between some archives; in fact, you will often find additional, complementary record collections. Neagles then discusses the wealth of potential information available in publications such as military histories, unit histories, biographies, and other publications. His comprehensive, state-by-state bibliography will provide you with new resources for additional details about your ancestors' service in the Confederate army. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who wants to locate Confederate ancestors' records in archives and other repositories.

A Guide to Solving Photographic Mysteries
Photographs are wonderful windows into the past, evoking memories of other times and places. The boxes, drawers, and albums full of photographs taken by our ancestors can supply us with lots of ancestral details. Unfortunately, many of our photos may be unlabeled, providing us with the challenge of identifying the subjects. One of the ways we can narrow our research range is by using clues about the photographs themselves.

Karen Frisch-Ripley's book Unlocking the Secrets in Old Photographs provides an excellent guide for photographic research. In easy-to-understand language and a very logical presentation, she first provides a methodical approach to identifying what you have in hand. She recommends studying the photographs, talking to relatives, identifying locations, and recognizing patterns of repetitive groups of the same people. She then explains how to use clothing and hats, furniture, photographic props, and locations to help identify people and times.

Frisch-Ripley details the history of photography and discusses the different processes used to produce photographic products—from daguerreotypes and tintypes to cartes de visite and cabinet cards to more recent photographic papers. All of these can help narrow the research range and help identify family members in photographs. She also discusses the important issues surrounding preservation of your family's photographic treasures, and she gives strategies for locating additional pictures, e.g., getting them from other relatives, on passports and driver's licenses, on work IDs, in newspapers, and in a variety of other places. Included is a list of additional sources and an extensive bibliography for further research.

Genealogical photographic research can become another addictive branch of your family history research. This book is a great read and will serve you as an excellent handbook.

And There Will Be a Test . . .
I know you don't have time to read everything. However, the test of how well your genealogical research progresses really depends on three factors: 1) your commitment in time to conducting scholarly research and to getting the facts right; 2) your understanding of the times and places where your family lived, of the historical events they witnessed and/or endured, and of the lifestyles they had; and 3) your ability to use the facts, the knowledge you acquire, and your ingenuity to develop creative approaches and alternative research paths in creating and testing your hypotheses. This is the test. And reading titles such as those I've suggested can help. If you don't like my suggestions, work with your library to find titles that may help you with your specific area of interest. No matter what, though, please keep reading!

Happy Hunting!

George

Bibliography
Dow, George Francis. Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc. 1988. ISBN: 0486255654. 293 pp.

Frisch-Ripley, Karen. Unlocking the Secrets in Old Photographs. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry, Incorporated. 1991. ISBN: 0916489507. 202 pp.

McCutcheon, Mark. The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. 1993. ISBN: 0898795419. 308 pp.

Neagles, James C. Confederate Research Sources: A Guide to Archive Collections. 2nd Ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry, Incorporated. 1986. ISBN: 0916489167. 286 pp.

Pfeiffer, Laura Szucs. Hidden Sources: Family History in Unlikely Places. Orem, UT: Ancestry Publishing. 2000. ISBN: 0916489868. 224 pp. (Today’s Product Special—on sale for only $29.95—see below for details)

Taylor, Dale. The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Colonial America from 1607-1783. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. 1999. ISBN: 0898799422. 288 pp.

George G. Morgan is a proud member of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors, Inc. (ISFHWE). He would like to hear from you at atl@ahaseminars.com, but due to the volume of e-mail received, he is unable to answer every e-mail message received. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual research. Visit George's Web site for information about speaking engagements. George is also the author of The Genealogy Forum on America Online, which is available in the Ancestry Online Store.

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