GENEALOGY BASICS IN 30 MINUTES (2021)

Genealogy Basics In 30 Minutes: The quick guide to creating a family tree, building connections with relatives, and discovering the stories of your ancestors by Shannon Combs-Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After fifty years of genealogical research, I was not expecting it, but Shannon Combs-Bennett's "Genealogy Basics in 30 Minutes" surprised me with new ideas! This is a concise, up-to-date guideline for getting started in genealogy while avoiding the most common mistakes and pitfalls. Information is shared in a well-organized, conversational style infused with the author's enthusiasm for family history!

Combs-Bennett's explanations are brief and understandable whether she's discussing digital issues, DNA, or record keeping. A helpful appendix and extensive index are included. (Check out her list of what you should have in your portable genealogy research kit for interviewing relatives.) Stressing the importance of record keeping and research logs, as well as ways to preserve records of all kinds, this is a book you'll want close at hand to reference as you grow your family tree. Highly recommended.

Thanks to the author, I30 Media Corporation and NetGalley for a digital copy; opinions are my own.
Publication Date was January 5, 2021 #GenealogyBasicsIn30Minutes #NetGalley


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ANNIE'S GHOSTS: A JOURNEY INTO A FAMILY SECRET (2009)

Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a perfect book! Part mystery, part memoir, and a look at the evolution of the mental health industry in this country, author Steve Luxenberg, a senior editor with the Washington Post for many years, uses his investigative skills to tell the fascinating story of his family's secret.

And I would never have known about the fact that it had been chosen as the 2013 - 2014 Michigan Read except for my favorite retired Jackson District librarians. We gather twice a year for lunch and to catch up on each other's lives. Invariably we talk about books.

Not being a native Michigander, I was not familiar with Detroit's Eloise Hospital for the mentally ill and homeless which flourished during the Depression. What I heard that afternoon about Annie's Ghosts sounded so fascinating that I immediately went home and downloaded the book to my Kindle. Before two days had passed, I had finished everything including the extensive notes following the narrative.

All their growing up years, Steve and his siblings had been told by their mother Beth that she was an only child. In poor health and in her eighties, she mentioned a sister to a new doctor. Six months after she died, the secret made another appearance but this time there was a name: Annie.

Not only has Steve Luxenberg created a highly readable book, the kind librarians call non-fiction that reads like fiction, but he shares his approach to researching which has allowed him to discover all sorts of hidden pieces of information.

He also carefully expands the story beyond the original 'secret' to explain the way the world 'worked' and how people thought during that time. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Title: Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret

Author: Steve Luxenberg

Genre: Memoir

Publisher:Hyperion

No. of Pages: 416 pages

Copyright: May 5, 2009

ISBN: 1401322476

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Source: Amazon Kindle

Steve Luxemberg has worked for more than thirty years as a reporter and editor having begun his career at The Baltimore Sun. He is now Associate Editor for The Washington Post and an author. Annie's Ghosts was chosen as a 2010 Notable Michigan Book among other honors.

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Images of America - Roxborough (2011)

Somewhere in your travels you have seen the Images of America series. It culls historical information about 'small towns and downtowns' into remembrances of times past using local historians and sources. They currently have 6,075 titles! You can read more about it and search for your favorite community HERE.

I grew up in Roxborough, a section of Philadelphia, and stumbled on this entry in the series while I was doing some research. Luckily Amazon had two in stock and now they only have one copy.

It didn't take me long to read through the entire book since it has the requisite 200+ pictures with captions and just a few introductory pages of background. Not that I am complaining. I was delighted to find things I recognized and facts I didn't know.

For example, my neighborhood was called Wissahickon Hills and was built after World War II. But our street bordered on Fairmount Park and we had woods directly across the street.

Wissahickon Schist Photo: Michael P. Klimetz

When I played in the woods as a child, I often found rocks containing garnets, which still seems magical to me. It never occurred to me that those rocks were unique in any way. They were named Wissahickon Schist by Florence Bascom, the first woman geologist. Bet you never heard of her. Among other things she was the founder of the Geology Department at Bryn Mawr College. (She died the day before I was born at the age of 82.) They named a crater on Venus after her. You can read more about her many firsts HERE.

Beyond that I learned that the deli where I bought steak hoagies originally opened as a general store and Post Office in 1825 although the building dates to 1797. The Methodist Church where I attended Girl Scouts dates to 1847 and was enlarged in 1871. The cave where I played was the result of mining in 1763, and the reservoir I walked around with friends after school for something to do was built in 1897 to be part of Philadelphia's drinking water system. 

These are delightful reads for a couple of hours of nostalgia and learning more about your roots. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Carnegie Branch - Jackson District Library (MI)

The Jackson District Library has begun a trial subscription of the Jackson Citizen Patriot from 1865-1922. Remote users can access this with their library card barcode and PIN.

Do you know the services your library offers? You might be surprised. Ask a librarian today!