Genealogy Online
Page 27
• In Search of Your Canadian Roots, Third Edition
• German-American Names, Third Edition
• Black Genesis: A Resource Book for African-American Genealogy, 2nd Edition
• The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women’s Genealogy
• The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program
• My Ancestors Came with the Conqueror: Those Who Did, and Some of Those Who Probably Did Not
Family Roots Publishing
Family Roots Publishing
P.O. Box 830
Bountiful, UT 84011
Phone: 801-992-3705
Both an online bookstore and a publishing house, the Family Roots Publishing Company (www.familyrootspublishing.com) provides a select catalog of genealogy research books and supplies at prices below retail. With new products nearly every day and a “daily special” on the home page, this site is worth a bookmark. They do not do print on demand at this time, and they specialize in how-to books, the owner, Leland Meitzler, told me.
“We publish genealogy guidebooks (how-to) only,” he said. “Anyone interested in submitting a manuscript should contact me at Lmeitzler@gmail.com with an overview of the proposed book. If I like what I see and wish to publish the book, I’ll most likely request a sample chapter prior to a contract being signed. We are presently seeking good manuscripts with wide appeal within the family history community.”
Among the outstanding publications from Family Roots Publishing is Bill Dollarhide’s latest book, Genealogical Resources of the Civil War Era. They also published Bill Dollarhide’s two-volume Census Substitutes and State Census Records books in 2008.
This publisher is also well known for its Map Guide to German Parish Registers. In addition to the Map Guides, they sell many genealogy-related guides printed by other publishers.
Family Roots Publishing is also the exclusive distributor of limited numbers of new copies of back issues of Heritage Quest Magazine, as well as the Genealogy Bulletin. Thirty-three back issues of the “Bulletin” are now found on this website, while Heritage Quest Magazine back issues are now beginning to be posted. The co-owner of Family Roots Publishing is Patty S. Meitzler, former editor of Heritage Quest Magazine and wife of Leland K. Meitzler, former managing editor of Heritage Quest Magazine and the Genealogical Helper Magazine.
Martin Genealogy Publishing
Martin Genealogy Publishing
4501 SW 62 Court
Miami, FL 33155-5936
Phone: 305-662-6115
William and Patricia Martin specialize in Alabama and Florida resources for genealogical and historical research. They also sell used books relating to genealogy. Patricia’s families are from Alabama, while William’s are from Florida. Both family lines extend back through Georgia, the Carolinas, and up the eastern coast of the United States.
MGP (www.wtmartin.com/home/martin-genealogy-publishing) started publishing works for genealogical and historical research in 1990. The website now lists a collection of old books and will be adding collectibles as they become available. Products include:
• 1885 Florida State Census Index in one volume for the entire state or as individual counties.
• The Gadsden Times (Etowah County, Alabama) Abstracts. Currently, four volumes are available: Vol. I 1867–1871, Vol. II 1872–1875, Vol. III 1876–1880, and Vol. IV 1881–1885.
• The Cubahatchee Baptist Church Book 1838–1850 (church minutes book) of Macon County, Alabama.
• The Ebenezer Church (of Talladega/Clay County, Alabama) 8 Aug 1878–13 Aug 1899.
The company’s first publications were simple indexes created as research tools. The 1885 Florida State Census Index was the first major publication. Other federal census indexes followed for a number of Florida counties in 1910. Then opportunities arose to expand into Alabama resources, and that has been the focus for several years. The Gadsden Times Abstracts is now available in four volumes, starting in 1867. The fifth volume, starting in 1886, is in production, the site says. Many libraries around the country have copies of the 1885 complete volumes, and several individuals have bought single-county volumes as needed.
Heritage Books
Heritage Books, Inc.
100 Railroad Avenue, Suite 104
Westminster, MD 21157-4826
Phone: 800-876-6103
For nearly 40 years, Heritage Books, Inc. (www.heritagebooks.com) has been a major publisher of titles in genealogy, history, military history, historical fiction, and memoirs. The company will publish 40 to 50 titles a month; some are completely new compilations, and others are historical reprints, though often with added name indexes or other improvements. Heritage Books now has over 3,900 titles under four publishing imprints. These cover historical accounts, vital statistics of immigrants, and even fact-rich historical novels. The imprints are:
• Heritage Books Historical works and genealogical titles
• Willow Bend Books Historical and genealogical titles now being imprinted under Heritage Books
• Eagle Editions Memoirs
• Fireside Fiction Historical fiction
To submit your book, read the submissions requirements at www.heritagebooks.com/publishing.html.
BookLocker
BookLocker.com (www.booklocker.com) is a general publisher, but they have accepted genealogy titles. They specialize in print-on-demand and e-books. Costs run from about $300 for doing everything yourself to about $500 for using their cover design service for a black and white book.
Genealogy titles you can buy from them include:
• The Genealogist’s Guide to Digital Photography
• Find Your Roots Now!
• Roots Recovered! The How To Guide for Tracing African-American and West Indian Roots Back to Africa and Going There
• Cleburne Memorial Cemetery of Johnson County, Texas
The print books are listed on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other major online bookstores. Buyers can also special order books from the local bookstores. BookLocker can provide an ISBN at no additional charge.
Lulu.com
One of the largest self-publish, print-on-demand, and e-book houses, Lulu.com (www.lulu.com) has become very popular with aspiring authors. They use a completely automated online system. As a high-tech version of the traditional vanity press, Lulu.com offers printing services and on-demand CDs, DVDs, e-publications, and more. Lulu.com’s prices are low, but you can expect to do all the work, such as designing book covers, creating page layouts, and marketing. Lulu.com does some marketing work, but does not publish catalogs or online websites for genealogists. Like BookLocker, it does offer its books through many bookstores, online booksellers, and so forth. Among the authors using Lulu.com is Dick Eastman of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter.
Some recent titles in genealogy include:
• The Church of Ireland in Co Limerick Edited Research Correspondence January 2012 to December 2013 by J. A. Murphy
• My Father’s Branch: The Lineage, Lore, and Life of Larkin Eugene Williams by Doyle W. Williams
• A Fox Family History by Kevin A. Fox
• A Gift to My Descendants by Barbara Samper
• My Mother’s Swedish Family by James D. Hedberg
• Carleton Gonya Cramer: An Uncommon Common Man by Donald M. Cramer
iUniverse.com
iUniverse (www.iuniverse.com) bills itself as “supported self-publishing.” About 231 titles in their catalog match the keyword “genealogy.”
The iUniverse.com service includes a custom cover and book design; an ISBN number; registration in the Ingram Books and Bowker’s Books in Print databases; and listings on Amazon.com, Borders.com, and BN.com (Barnes and Noble’s online site). The site says that the books are “available” through 5,000 bookstores (that is, available through special order to bookstores). iUniverse.com can be more expensive than other print-on-demand services, with prices starting at $599 in adva
nce and going up to $2,099 in advance. More pricing information is available at www.iuniverse.com/Packages/PackageCompare.aspx.
Smaller Publishers
Creative Continuum, Inc.
2910 E. La Palma Ave. Suite C.
Anaheim, CA 92806
Phone: 866-799-2738
Creative Continuum (www.creativecontinuum.com) concentrates on family history books and other smaller publishing projects. A “vanity press” (the author pays the costs and uses the company’s expertise and equipment), they provide a number of publishing services, including professional book design, layout and typesetting, and printing on archival paper. The company’s website says they can assist an author with organizing a genealogy and family history, developing data into a publication-ready format, and publishing an heirloom book of genealogy and family history.
Family Heritage Publishers
Family Heritage Publishers
573 West 4800 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84123
Phone: 801-685-6151
A traditional vanity press, Family Heritage Publishers (www.familyheritagepublishers.com) is the binder for the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. They offer archival-quality printing for any size publishing job, from 1 copy to 1,000. This publisher will print and bind books of all kinds—including family histories, town histories, biographies, and family reunion booklets. They can also help you prepare your manuscript for publishing. They do only physical books, not e-books or POD.
Modern Memoirs, Inc.
Modern Memoirs, Inc.
34 Main Street #9
Amherst, MA 01002-2367
Phone: 413-253-2353
This is a vanity press with an emphasis on memoirs. Services include editing, printing, and binding. They specialize in memoirs and family histories and can handle offset printing and digital print on demand. You can contact them by e-mail at kitty@modernmemoirs.com.
Shortrunbooks.com
Shortrunbooks
215 E. 3rd Street
Des Moines, IA 50309
Phone: 800-247-5087
This division of Dilley Manufacturing Company (www.dilleymfg.com) provides binding-only services for your self-printed family history. Print at home or your local copy shop, and then send the manuscripts to them for hard-cover binding.
Finding More
To find more options for self-publishing your genealogy work, try:
• Cyndi’s List page (www.cyndislist.com/books.htm#Publishers).
• Search Google, Bing, or Yahoo! for “print on demand” +publisher.
• Talk to your local university or college to see if they have a press that prints local history and similar topics.
To find more books about genealogy, use your favorite search engines for the surnames, places, and/or date you need.
Wrapping Up
• Several publishing companies specialize in genealogy.
• Publishing your family’s genealogy will likely involve a vanity press (self-publishing) outfit.
• Print-on-demand and e-books are economical ways to go about it.
• If you want to share your genealogy expertise, you may find a traditional publisher. Or, you could still go the self-publishing route.
Chapter 20
A Potpourri of Genealogy
As you’ve no doubt noticed while reading this book, genealogy websites come in all categories. You will find portals that aim to be your web home. You will find sites with images of original documents or transcribed records (perhaps both!), and sites with completed, annotated genealogies. You will find sites where folks have slapped up any data they found, regardless of accuracy or relevancy. You will find primary records, secondary records, family legends, and scams. It’s truly an embarrassment of riches out there.
You must remember to judge each source you find critically and carefully. Compare it to what you have proven with your own research. Look for the original records cited in an online genealogy to see if they have been interpreted correctly (remember the lesson about census records!). Most of all, look for application to your genealogy. How helpful is it?
This list of websites reflects what I’ve found to be valuable. Some of these sites are portals and will link you to sites I haven’t found or that didn’t exist at press time. Other links may be “dead” (as they say in web parlance) by the time you read this. Don’t be discouraged by this. That’s part of the fun of online genealogy: There’s always something new!
Note
Most online genealogists have at least these five links bookmarked:
Cyndi’s List (http://www.cyndislist.com), DearMYRTLE (http://www.dearmyrtle.com), FamilySearch.com (http://www.familysearch.com), NARA (http://www.archives.gov), and RootsWeb (http://www.rootsweb.com).
Alexa.com Top 25 Genealogy Sites Early 2014
Alexa Internet, started April 1996, crawls the Web and reports the most popular of sites back to the database. The website not only has current trends in web surfing, but also historical measures of the popularity of sites in thousands of categories. If you are brand new to online genealogy, these are good places to start, which is why some of them got a dedicated chapter in this book. Among the top genealogy sites measured by Alexa for early 2014 are:
• http://www.ancestry.com As covered in a previous chapter, this is the subscription-based resource of worldwide census, marriage, newspaper, and various other records. The site has some free searchable databases, columns and articles, GEDCOMs, and forums.
• http://www.legacy.com Legacy.com collaborates with more than 800 newspapers in North America, Europe, and Australia to provide ways for readers to express condolences and share remembrances of loved ones.
• http://www.familysearch.org The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides an online search of the millions of names in its International Genealogical Index, and of genealogical websites. It also has information on its Family History Library and local branches.
• http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com Genealogical resource with searchable databases, family trees, mailing lists, and message boards.
• http://www.archives.com This site is a resource guide, allowing the sharing of family photos and documents.
• http://www.geneanet.org Features a network of online genealogy databases.
• http://www.genealogy.com Offers FamilyTreeMaker software, subscription-based access to searchable databases, plus forums, news, and research tips.
• http://www.wikitree.com A free, collaborative worldwide family tree project by a community of genealogists and their family members.
• http://boards.ancestry.com Centralized collection of genealogical message boards hosted by Ancestry.com. Forums include specialized topics such as surnames, locales, and organizations. A versatile search engine allows for locating specific resources, including bible records, deeds, and marriage bonds, among others.
• http://blog.eogn.com Newsletter with family history news, tips, and reviews from genealogist Dick Eastman.
• http://www.ancientfaces.com Ancient Faces builds a visual representation of history through the collaboration of the online community. Share vintage photos to discover the faces and places related to your history at this website.
• http://www.familytreedna.com DNA is the ultimate link in the family and social network. DNA can show relationships between individuals, whether close or distant. It also establishes fingerprints for the purpose of determining ancestral pedigrees. Any person can have a simple DNA test with a simple and painless cheek swab. The company has headquarters in Houston, Texas.
• http://www.findmypast.co.uk Family history research online. Enables you to create a family tree using birth, marriage, and death indexes; census returns; and many more historical UK family history records.
• http://www.genforum.genealogy.com Over 14,000 online forums devoted to genealogy, including surnames, U.S. states, countries, and general topics.
• http://www.genealogyintime.com An online genealogy magazin
e with free search engines, articles, tools, and listings of the latest genealogy records on the Internet.
• http://www.newspaperarchive.com Registered members may access a database of searchable and downloadable archived newspapers from the 1700s to today. Many libraries have access for patrons.
• http://www.genealogy.about.com Written by famed genealogist Kimberly Powell, this blog and link site features links for researching family history, including genealogical societies, ethnic sites, and access to genealogical software.
• http://www.kabalarians.com Approximately 300,000 names and what purports to be analysis of the names’ meaning and significance. I don’t know why this one is listed in the “genealogy” category, as it is about New Age philosophy as applied to names. It’s a parlor game, not useful data to do family history.
• http://www.cyndislist.com A large, categorized, and cross-referenced directory of sites useful for genealogical research, with hundreds of thousands of links.
• http://www.jewishgen.org Provides a wide range of resources, including databases, Family Finder, articles, societies, projects, and discussion groups.
• http://www.royal.gov.uk This official site covers the monarch’s role and the history of the monarchy, gives biographies of the Royal Family, and tourist information for Royal Palaces and the Royal Collection.
• http://www.worldvitalrecords.com This website offers users international record databases, references to top genealogical resources, a blog, podcasts, videocasts, webinars, expert advice, training, and user-generated content.
• http://www.surnames.behindthename.com Searchable database featuring the etymology and history of last names.