French-Canadian Sources: A Guide for Genealogists
by Patricia Keeney Geyh, Joyce Soltis Banachowski, Linda K. Boyea, Patricia Sarasin Ustine, Marilyn Holt Bourbonais, Beverly Ploenske LaBelle, Francele Sherburne, Karen Vincent Humiston. Ancestry Publishing, 2002. 340 pages. Hardcover. $39.95. Order at <www.ancestry.com>.

Comprehensive French-Canadian genealogy source books for English-speaking researchers are few and far between. Because much of the most valuable information available is in French, many non-French-speaking genealogists are at a real disadvantage. This book aims to assist those researchers by providing detailed explanations in English about the many primary and secondary sources available.

French-Canadian genealogy is not the same as other such research. The reasons for this difference are based on these three facts: First, women in French society do not lose their maiden names; in official records they are known by their maiden name. Second, an extraordinarily large percentage of French-Canadian records have been preserved. Third, since the middle 1800s the French Canadians have been carefully tracing their families back into France and also indexing a huge proportion of the primary records.

French-Canadian Sources: A Guide for Genealogists began as a series of articles relating to research that had appeared in the French-Canadian/Acadian Genealogists of Wisconsin's society Quarterly over a period of some fifteen years. Before publication, and over a period of six years, the authors added many new articles and brought previously published articles up-to-date. They organized the finished book in five sections: an introduction to French-Canadian research, a description and explanation of major secondary sources, a description and explanation of major primary sources, a section on more specialized areas of research, and appendixes.

Exploring Our Lives: A Writing Handbook for Senior Adults
by Francis E. Kazemek. Santa Monica Press, 2002. 309 pages. Softcover. $14.95. Order at <www.santamonicapress.com>.

Many senior adults would like to share their life experiences with family members through a personal history, but they are hesitant to begin such a daunting task. In Exploring Our Lives, Francis Kazemek assures would-be writers that everyone can write—all they need is interest.

Those who cannot decide what to write about will find many suggestions about topic selection, opportunities to practice selecting a topic, and examples from the author. Kazemek proves that there are numerous ways to record a personal history. Each chapter highlights a different method of writing, including poetry, short stories, fiction, and journal writing. Experimenting with these methods may convince writers to capture their thoughts in haiku, or to use photographs to help recall distant memories. The text also assists with fundamental writing concerns such as considering one's audience and fulfilling a specific purpose. The step-by-step instructions in this book make personal history writing a manageable undertaking.

The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634–1635, Vol. III
by Robert Charles Anderson. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003. 598 pages. Hardcover. $59.95. To order, call 1-888-296-3447 or visit <www.newenglandancestors.org>.

Between 1620 and 1643, about 20,000 European immigrants settled in New England. Although thousands of books and articles have been published about them, The Great Migration Study Project is the first comprehensive reference work that gathers all available information about these early immigrants.

Robert Anderson's The Great Migration Begins, volumes 1–3, covered all recorded immigrants from 1620 through 1633. The second series of the Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, covers the years 1634–1635. In this two-year period, 1,300 individuals and families came to New England, representing 20 percent of the entire Great Migration. Volumes 1 and 2 for surnames from A-F have been published. Volume 3 covers surnames from G-H. Anderson and his researchers gathered biographical information (occupation, education, etc.), and genealogical data (birth, death, marriage, etc.), and immigration information, including additional details available and bibliographic notes on the most important published treatments of the immigrant and his or her family.

The Complete Great Migration Newsletter, Volumes 1–10
by Robert Charles Anderson. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2002. 370 pages. Softcover. $19.95. To order, call 1-888-296-3447 or visit <www.newenglandancestors.org>.

When the Great Migration Study Project was begun, a quarterly newsletter was also begun. Its threefold purpose was to 1) relay information on the Great Migration Study Project as it progressed, 2) create a constituency for the project, and 3) generate additional funds to finance the project. Each newsletter followed the same format, containing an in-depth look at one of the Great Migration towns, a lead article dealing with a class of records (such as passenger lists and church records) or with a research strategy (documentation of marriages, deaths, etc.). Also included are summaries of published articles and books related to the Great Migration as well as a progress report by Robert Anderson, the project's director. An earlier publication of the compiled newsletters contained newsletters from the first five years; this publication includes the next twenty newsletters which appeared over the following five years.

Return to the July August 2003 Table of Contents.