{"id":93723,"date":"2023-08-09T09:48:17","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T13:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=93723"},"modified":"2023-08-09T09:48:46","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T13:48:46","slug":"genealogy-101-using-books-for-genealogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-101-using-books-for-genealogy.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy 101: Using Books for Genealogy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Introduction:<\/em><\/strong><em> In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega gives tips for efficiently using books in your genealogical research. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When teaching genealogical research, I recommend using books to find information on an ancestor. Genealogically relevant books include local histories, family histories, transcriptions, and abstracts. Books are found in places such as a local library, a genealogy library, or online.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_93727\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-93727\" style=\"width: 969px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-book-pages.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-93727\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-book-pages.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: book pages. Credit: Johannes Jansson; Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"969\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-book-pages.jpg 969w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-book-pages-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-book-pages-768x507.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 969px) 100vw, 969px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-93727\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: book pages. Credit: Johannes Jansson; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Using a book for research may seem intuitive. After all, how hard is using a book? You open the book and look for the information you need. If you don\u2019t see it, move on to the next book. To a certain extent, that\u2019s true \u2013 but it helps to think carefully about the parts of a book and how they may inform your research. What clues do they hold? What\u2019s missing? Whether a book can or cannot help you is more than whether you can find an ancestral surname.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Parts of a Book<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before we discuss specific parts of a book, let\u2019s see what parts can exist in a nonfiction work. There are other possible parts, but here\u2019s a partial list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Front cover<\/li>\n<li>Title page<\/li>\n<li>Copyright<\/li>\n<li>Table of contents<\/li>\n<li>Dedication\/Acknowledgements<\/li>\n<li>Foreword<\/li>\n<li>Book introduction<\/li>\n<li>Body of book (chapters)<\/li>\n<li>Author bio<\/li>\n<li>Bibliography and\/or Sources<\/li>\n<li>Index<\/li>\n<li>Back cover<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The above parts may be present or not depending on the book. Many factors determine what is in a book, including the author, the publisher, funding, and the book\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Some aspects of the book need no explanation. For example, the body of the book is where the text is. You\u2019ll read or skim this for the information you need. The front and back cover is a synopsis of what you might expect from the book. However, these blurbs can be brief and not as helpful in all cases.<\/p>\n<p>Other parts of the book provide clues to what you might find, such as the table of contents, while others might hint at the quality of the research or expertise of the author, such as the author\u2019s bio. The point is we need to carefully analyze the books we use to ascertain if they have the information we need and if the information is of the quality we are looking for.<\/p>\n<p>How do you approach researching a book? For many of us, it depends on how we were taught. In genealogy, books can be finding aids to records or explain a place and time. As mentioned previously, different types of books can help our research.<\/p>\n<p>Three parts of a book that can get ignored are what we find in the back. For our purposes here, let\u2019s focus on those parts: the index, bibliography, and sources.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Example: Index<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An index is one way researchers may start their book research. One writer says: \u201cAn index is essentially a roadmap to the book, listing names, places, and things alphabetically and giving the page numbers associated with each topic. For nonfiction books, packed with valuable information, a well-made index can help quickly direct the reader to the information they\u2019re trying to find.\u201d *<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_93731\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-93731\" style=\"width: 432px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-index.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-93731\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-index.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: index to \u201cHistory of Henry County, Indiana. Volume II,\u201d by George Hazzard, 1845. Credit: Indiana State Library and Historical Bureau; Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"432\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-index.jpg 432w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-index-206x300.jpg 206w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-93731\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: index to \u201cHistory of Henry County, Indiana. Volume II,\u201d by George Hazzard, 1845. Credit: Indiana State Library and Historical Bureau; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Unfortunately, many researchers only follow one simple approach: they flip to the back and scan the index for the keywords they seek. These words might include names or locations. The hope is that if you find something in the index, you can turn straight to the page the keywords appear on, saving time and effort. If you don\u2019t find it, you may close the book without considering what may be hiding in the pages.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the problem with that approach. First, keep in mind that not everything is indexed in a book. For example, one of the publishers I wrote a book for instructed me that an index was optional \u2013 and if the author included it, it could only be a half page. I felt an index was vital but with limited space, I had to pick and choose what should be included. What I thought was important might not be what a researcher believes is important. Even if a book is a transcription of a source and the index, logically, should contain the names of those in the book, it may not, for whatever reason.<\/p>\n<p>Indexes can have errors. Anytime people work on a publication, they can introduce errors. Misspellings and omissions can happen in indexes. Once again, just because something does not appear in an index doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not in the book.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s the best way to use an index? After I pick up a book, I always start with the index. I peruse the index to get a sense of what I can find in the book, regardless of what name I\u2019m searching for. Keywords may describe something like a religion or an occupation my ancestor was part of that I need to read. Remember that not all relevant sources name our ancestors; even so, they may provide us with other information that leads us to records.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Example: Bibliography and Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If the nonfiction book you are using has a bibliography and\/or sources (footnotes or endnotes), take some time to study those. Bibliographies are the books, periodicals, and collections a writer consulted, even if they\u2019re not actually cited in the text. Endnotes or footnotes (endnotes appearing at the end of the book and footnotes appearing at the bottom of each page) are the author\u2019s sources that they are citing. These are the resources they used, complete with page numbers and quotes. This is gold for the researcher because it helps you find additional materials.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_93733\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-93733\" style=\"width: 375px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-bibliography.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-93733\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-bibliography.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: \u201cBibliography of the Laws of Indiana, 1788-1927,\u201d by John G. Rauch, 1928. Credit: Indiana State Library and Historical Bureau; Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"375\" height=\"622\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-bibliography.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-0809-2023-bibliography-181x300.jpg 181w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-93733\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: \u201cBibliography of the Laws of Indiana, 1788-1927,\u201d by John G. Rauch, 1928. Credit: Indiana State Library and Historical Bureau; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A bibliography can help you as a researcher find works you weren\u2019t aware of. The author might also list archival or original sources that can include your ancestor. A careful reading of the bibliography and sources is a must. Think of it as a finding aid to additional resources.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Find the Information You Need<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Books are vital to our research, even in a world with electronic databases and digitized records. Not everything is digitized, nor will it ever be, so we need to survey what is available on the places, history, and records we are researching. However, it\u2019s not enough to search in a book; carefully consider the parts and what they tell you about what is in the book and elsewhere for your research.<\/p>\n<p>Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/sign-up\">Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n<p>* \u201cUnderstanding Book Indexes,\u201d Greenleaf Book Group (<a href=\"https:\/\/greenleafbookgroup.com\/learning-center\/book-creation\/understanding-book-indexes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/greenleafbookgroup.com\/learning-center\/book-creation\/understanding-book-indexes<\/a>: accessed 27 July 2023).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega gives tips for efficiently using books in your genealogical research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":93739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[5,2719],"class_list":["post-93723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-books","tag-genealogy-search-tips"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/photo-1018-2016-featured-graphic-classroom.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93723"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93737,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93723\/revisions\/93737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}