Ancestry Fine Source For Searchers

Ancestry and Ancestry Newsletter have been around since 1984, and what they offer to genealogists has only improved through the years.

During its first decade, Ancestry, the company, concentrated on publishing a really good newsletter and a few really good genealogy books like “The Source” and “The Redbook.”

The newsletter is now a magazine, along with Genealogical Computing, and their book catalog runs to 25 pages.

The most exciting development at Ancestry Inc. is the online Ancestry HomeTown. This Internet site wants to be “The Place” for all genealogy needs.

Here’s what Ancestry offers working genealogists:

Ancestry Magazine, published bi-monthly, runs 50 to 55 pages with several feature articles, department reports and regular columns.

Recent feature articles include “The Unsinkable Titanic: The Notorious Tragedy revisited,” plus tips on researching steamship passengers; “The Third Degree: Tips for Successful Interviews,” “Visiting Your SmallTown Roots,” “Family Research in the Austrian Tyrol” and “Canadian Census and Naturalization Records.”

Regular columns include Library and Archive Sources, Research Cornerstones and Back to Basics. Usually there’s also a technology column.

Annual subscription to Ancestry Magazine is $24.95.

Genealogical Computing is a quarterly journal that addresses the growing role of computers in the hobby (or business) of genealogy.

Since 1980, world-renown authors have submitted articles on the most up-to-date research techniques and what’s to be found by using computers in genealogy.

Whether you’re a beginner or advanced family historian using a computer, Genealogical Computing teaches something in each issue.

Annual subscription is $25.

Besides “The Source,” “The Redbook” and “The Library of Congress,” staples in genealogy books, Ancestry publishes an entire library of other helpful books, including:

“Land and Property Research” by E. Wade Hone; “Turbo Genealogy” by John and Carolyn Cosgriff; “Searching for Cyber-Roots” by Laurie and Steve Bonner; “U.S. Military Records” by James C. Neagles; “Producing a Quality Family History” by Patricia Law Hatcher; “The Ancestry Family Historians Address Book,” by Juliana Szucs Smith; “Becoming an Accredited Genealogist” by Karen Clifford; and “Your German Ancestry” by Kevan Hansen.

Printed sources include “A Guide to Published Genealogical Sources” by Kory Meyerink; “They Became Americans: Research in Naturalization Records” by Loretto Szucs; and “Irish Records: Sources for Family and Local History” by James G. Ryan.

But the biggest and most exciting offering from Ancestry is the creation of the online Ancestry HomeTown.

At this town site, you can visit the “Library,” take classes from the “Academy,” obtain research help from the “Search Shop,” access millions of names in the “World Wide Family Tree,” and make purchases from the “Genealogy Shoppe.”

The “town” has several daily papers in the form of daily and weekly online genealogy newsletters, plus columns of Dear Myrtle and Myra Vanderpool Gormley.

Next week I’ll tell you more about the Ancestry HomeTown, including the pricing schedules.

“What’s New in Genealogy” will be discussed at the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society’s meeting at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the downtown Spokane Library.

A free beginner’s class runs from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m.