Software Offers Fingertip Access To Historical Data

Welcome to a new century of genealogy, in which more and more genealogical resources are becoming available on CD-ROM disk. And more and more books related to genealogy are being published.

Perhaps this is because, as American Demographics magazine reports, some 19 million Americans are searching for their roots.

As you’ve collected names, dates and places on your genealogy charts, haven’t you wondered about the historical events that shaped your ancestral family?

But, even if you did wonder, you probably haven’t spent the necessary hours in the library collecting geographic and historical information and finding pictures and maps.

Now, with the advent of genealogy computer programs, you don’t have to, but you can still access this material to broaden your genealogy and family history. The Encyclopedia of American History, a new CD-ROM available through Comptons New Media, is designed like a history book. Each chapter incorporates various tables, videos, essays and slides to accompany the text that discusses the historian’s viewpoint.

You can access all this material sitting at your own little desk (in your jammies, as I like to say) for a cost of $40.

For more information, or to place an order, call Comptons at (800) 862-2206.

“Weights, Money and Other Measures Used by Our Ancestors,” by Colin R. Chapman, published in 1995 by Genealogical Publishing Co., is an unusual and interesting book.

Written for researchers unfamiliar with units of weights and measurements and are unsure, for example, if a particular measurement indicates a number, a coin or a capacity, this book is a great companion to keep by your side while perusing wills, inventories, accounts and old journals.

This 92-page paperback costs $15. To order a copy, call Genealogical Publishing Co. at (800) 296-6687.

Ancestry Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company, also publishes wonderfully helpful genealogy resource books.

One recent title was “A Preservation Guide: Saving the Past and the Present for the Future,” by Barbara Sagraves. If you need a short, inexpensive, concise guide to preserving your genealogical documents and artifacts, then this 48-page book is for you.

Don’t let your accumulated certificates, photographs and documents deteriorate in improper files or shoe boxes. Order “A Preservation Guide” for $9.45, postpaid, from Ancestry at (800) 531-1790, or write the company at P.O. Box 476, Salt Lake City, UT 84110.

Another Ancestry book is “U.S. Catholic Sources, A Diocesan Research Guide,” compiled by Virginia Humling. Genealogists know that church records provide a primary resource for family history. Folks with U.S. Catholic ancestry will find this guide indispensable.

While the parish remains the most fundamental unit for research, diocesan archives often contain records from closed parishes and of diocesan newspapers.

For every archdiocese and diocese in the United States this 112-page guide identifies the records available and a contact person for each location.

It can be ordered for $17.45, postpaid, from Ancestry.

Lost in Chicago? It’s always been difficult to research in big cities, and disasters (like the Great Chicago Fire) compound the problems.

Author Loretto Dennis Szucs has compiled “Chicago and Cook County: A Guide to Research,” and I guarantee that this 350-page book will help you over the stumbling blocks in doing Chicago research.

Remember, too, that Chicago served as a springboard for millions of immigrants, so there is a good chance you will find a Chicago ancestor in your family tree.

This book costs $19.45, postpaid, from Ancestry.

Camosun College in Victoria, British Columbia, is sponsoring its second Genealogical Seminar on April 13, from 8:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Lansdowne Campus. Lectures include “Europe to the New World - The Mainstreams and Eddys of Canadian Immigration,” and “His Majesty’s Share - Research in British Tax Records, 1660-1800.” Presenters include Sherry Irvine, author, lecturer and owner of The Interlink Bookshop in Victoria.

For more information, contact the Camosun College, Community Education, 3100 Foul Bay Road, Victoria, BC V8P5J2, or call (604) 370-3153.

If you want to really make a Canadian research trip out of this opportunity, the Surrey Public Library, just south of Vancouver, has a large collection of Canadian genealogical materials.

The April 6 meeting of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society begins at 1 p.m. in the auditorium of the downtown Spokane Public Library.

Melode Hall will present a program on the use of PERSI, a new set of reference books in the Genealogy Section. The listings in these books will direct you to items about your genealogy that have been published in genealogical periodicals. All interested genealogists are invited to attend.

, DataTimes