| Back to C & G Index Page | Back to Article Index Page | Back to LGS Main Page |
For the last nine months, we've covered resources that are uniquely available on the InterNet and I hope I have helped, in some small way, to show you a slice of the wide horizon of services and materials available on the Internet.
Although we have just begun to scratch the enormous range genealogical resources available on the Internet, it's worth acknowledging that much of the information that was previously available only in books is only slowly reaching the Internet. Therefore, the diligent researcher is, and will continue to be, dependent on books and other printed matter for much of the information we seek for some time to come.
The Internet cannot provide you with this information, but it can certainly help you locate and obtain the rare and hard-to-find books necessary to your research. This month, I thought I'd cover the finding and purchasing of printed materials using the Internet to find and order these materials.
There are a number of used book stores, online, which either specialize in or feature used, rare and hard-to-find genealogical and historical books. The web-sites of these bookstores usually provide search engines which allow you to search their shelves for specific surnames or subjects of interest to you right on the web. Once you have found titles of importance to you, they generally allow you order online or by phone or mail.
As researchers, not only are we often unpaid for the work we do, but generally we have to pay for it ourselves; little of it is actually free!!. That's one of the great things about a place like Powell's; most of the titles are used and priced at 1/2 their retail cost; sometimes less!!
We'll start with a local resource.
Powell Books, in Portland, is arguably the largest used book store in the entire world, with over a million titles in stock at any given time. Now, researchers like ourselves are used to poking through used bookstores, even sizable ones, only to find, perhaps one or two titles. This is not a problem you will encounter at Powell's. Point your web browser to:
"http://www.powells.portland.or.us/" or Click Here
An excellent web page will pop up, complete with a "search" field where you can type in any word or phrase and then press the "Submit" button. The search engine on the Powell's page will race through all one-million-plus titles and come up with those containing your word or phrase. As I wrote this article, I submitted the word "genealogy" to the engine. It promptly popped up over 200 separate titles. Over 40 of them were surname books!! There were family books on such surnames as Hamilton, Kern, Schmidt, Arnold, Ames, Baker, Zilk, Beckstead, Bullitt, Diderot, Pope, Gibbs, Cody, Donldson, Fagan, Greenleaf, Ulst, McNair and Holbert, to name but a few.
There were also such titles as:
There are hundreds more titles and the selections change every day, as books are bought and sold. It will pay you to check Powell's web-site regularly, so you can snag the books you need as they come in. An don't forget that, if a book can be useful to a reasonable number of members of the Linn Genealogical Society, you can propose that the Society purchase it with you on a 50-50 basis, for use by all the members of the Society!!
There's also a fine historical section with many fine and often rare books containing such things as large-format photographs of early and historic Oregon, Military campaigns and history, Civil War and Indian War diaries and journals, pioneer diaries and remembrances, and much, much more. And don't forget to check the Rare Book Room at Powell's; pressing the "Rare Book Room" link will take you to their fantastic selection of rare books, many of them about history and genealogy!!
Stacey's is a large bookstore in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which specializes in books on genealogy and history. They can be found at:
"http://www.highfiber.com/~rmcclend/genea.html" or Click Here
Their genealogical section is even bigger than Powell's. I counted over 30 surname books before I even got to the "F"'s!! There are literally hundreds of surname books, as well as hundreds more books on the subject of genealogy in general.
There is also an extensive history section, including books on the frontier territories, the early histories of almost every state and county and hundreds of cities, the history of wars, Indian wars and other military activities, compilations of historic newspapers, abstracts of land patents and grants for various states and territories, colonial militia records, sketches, drawings and photographs of the territories, pioneer communities, Civil War photographs, prominent citizens of various towns and counties, and much, much more. I counted over 200 such books for the area east of the Mississippi alone!!
Stacey's also has an extensive consignment page, meaning that people who have books like these to sell can place them on Stacey's web-site for sale. you can see and search these selections as well as those mentioned above.
There are a number of publishers who specialize in printing or reprinting books related to genealogy and history. Several, like Higginson Books, specialize almost exclusively in publishing books that are long out of print and are, therefore, rare.
Probably the most amazing source of genealogical and historical books that have been out of print (often for many years or even many decades) is Higginson Books. Higginson specializes in locating out-of print books and books whose copyrights either never existed or which have expired. They do not print large runs of such books, instead they print them on demand, which means that when you mail, call in or fax an order, they make one up just for you. They carry over 7,000 titles, many of them extremely rare or hard-to-find. The size of their books ranges from 8 pages to 1200 pages or more. And since you are buying a reproduction, rather than an original, they are quite reasonably priced.
As an example, I received an e-mail, several months ago, regarding the relatives I had in Lenawee County, Michigan. I had thought that there was only one, but it turned out that there were more than 30 of them, in both my Grant and Bovee lines. The person who sent me the e-mail, referred me to a book called "Portrait & Biographical Album of Lenawee County, Containing Full Page Portraits & Biographical Sketches of Prominent & Representative Citizens of the County", a 1280-page book published in 1888. According to her, this book mentioned and, in many cases described my relatives, their positions in Lenawee County and included a lot of historical background. It even included portraits and pictures of a few of them!! The only problem was that she had only seen one copy of this book, which had been out of print for over a hundred years, and she had no idea where I could get one.
Then, about a month ago, a person I met on the Grant Surname List (remember surname lists?? They were covered in my Article #3 - you might want to re-read the information about surname lists; they have led me to many wonderful discoveries, including living relatives and tips about resources such as this). Although we were unrelated, he mentioned Higginson, whereupon I did what I always do when I hear something new; I asked him to tell me all about it. He sent me their web-site address.
When I went there, I was absolutely stunned at the quantity and variety of publications they had to offer and I was delighted at the reasonable prices. A two-volume, hard-cover copy of the "Portrait and Biographical Album", all 1280 pages of it printed on archival-quality paper, cost $119.00. And there were many, many other books available which would delight any genealogical researcher.
You can find Higginson at:
"http://higginsonbooks.com/" or Click Here
All of their books are printed on archival-quality paper. Many of the surname books are printed in paper-bound, but for an extra $10.00 you can have them hardbound with archival-quality, cloth-bound covers. All of the county and state books seem to be hardbound.
Another fine site is that of Family Line Publications of Westminster, Maryland. This firm specializes in carrying books related to historic and genealogical information in Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virgina, West Virginia, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. They also have a good selection of books on English, German, Irish, Scottish and Welsh genealogy. Most of their books are recent releases, though they have a few reproductions.
Though their geographical area is somewhat limited, the information that they carry is astonishingly detailed and specializes in marriage, marriage license and death indexes, probate, tombstone and bible extracts, city directories, historic newspaper abstracts, pioneer and early family books for various states, counties and cities, church records, wills, land transactions, tax lists, birth indexes and other very valuable resources.
Their prices seem quite reasonable; I saw very few books that were over $30.00; most were in the $15.00 to $25.00 range. If you need information related to these states, you should not neglect this site. And since so many immigrants passed through these states on their way from Europe to the West, there's a good chance that you'll want to remember this site.
To reach Family Line Publications, point your browser to:
"http://pages.prodigy.com/Strawn/family.htm" or Click Here
Kinship is another publisher of rare and valuable genealogical information, mostly newer, but nonetheless very detailed and valuable. Their special focus is on New York-based resources, but they include many publications containing resources related to Massachusetts, Michigan and New Jersey. Since New York was the point of entry for so many millions of immigrant families and individuals, I felt it worth including this site, which probably contains more detailed, New York information than any other I've seen.
The depth and detail of information is really quite remarkable. including church records, cemetery records, baptism records, vital records indexes, tax records, newspaper compilations, genealogies of families and communities, Civil War diaries and extracted records of the Hessian troops that served the British in the Revolutionary War.
They also publish a "Settlers and Residents" series which includes lists of settlers for various towns along with early maps, census data, town clerks records, gravestone inscriptions, and church records of deaths, members, communicants, and confirmands. Also records extracted from school records, doctor's daybooks, diaries, and mill records.
You can find Kinship at:
"http://www.kinshipny.com/catalog.htm" or Click Here
While there are many more web-sites that contain important information, this is all the room I've got here. Check out these web-sites and be sure and book-mark them so that you can revisit them as the need arises. You'll be glad you did.
Byron Bray
Used & Rare Bookstores Online
Powell Books
Well, you get the idea.
Stacey's Books - Genealogy Section
New "Old" Books and Publishers Online
Higginson Books
Family Line Publications
Kinship
Good Hunting!!
byron.bray@cmug.com