Pre-Order DearMYRTLE’s JOY OF GENEALOGY

Geoff Rasmussen

15 Feb 2006

from DearMYRTLE:

Ol’ Myrt is pleased to announce that her newest book (a really BIG one this time) is finally going to press. It is an answer to her brother-in-law Paul’s questions:

Where do you start with family history?
Why isn’t there a chart outlining what to do step-by-step?
Which websites are worth "joining" and are the free sites any good?
What part does the Family History Library in Salt Lake play?
What can I do when no one remembers anyone before the great-grandparents?
Are you saying we have to travel to each and every church or courthouse where our ancestors lived in the 1800s?
What do I do with all this genealogy stuff I’m accumulating?

Throughout these 11 years of writing DearMYRTLE’s genealogy columns, I realize genealogists throughout the world are faced by these same questions day in and day out. New ones are joining in the search each day.

This all came rushing back to me when I attended a genealogy seminar last fall. There were 8-10 classes per hour, with two morning sessions and two afternoon sessions. Those 40 some-odd classes provided details on how to research census, land, probate, church and foreign record office documents.

Just before the 2nd hour classes, I ran across a lady who was simply overwhelmed – and "underwhelmed" as well. She felt there should be a simple outline of steps to follow to get the family tree climbing stuff done, step-by-step like following a recipe. All these classes were well and good, but they weren’t meeting her need to see the process and the path to follow.

Unfortunately the path isn’t the same for everyone. This book guides the beginner or intermediate family historian through research possibilities with actual examples of source documents proving family relationships.