Let’S Talk About Cd-Rom Disks

Sun., Feb. 14, 1999

Donna Potter Phillips The Spokes

Did you realize that an entire specialized library of genealogy information is available on one skinny little disk?

Picton Press has long been a publisher of books on New England places and families. The company’s new selection “Picton’s Lost Souls,” is three disks containing indexes only to most of the books in their catalog. With these disks, you can search for your surnames and then order the books which contain information on your families. The $29 disks are available at Picton, P.O. Box 250, Rockport, ME 04856-0250; call them at (207) 236-6565 or e-mail the company at< sales@pictonpress.com>.

Heritage Books offers databases on disks for 10 states. It’s Heritage’s goal to provide searchable records for each state, records we can use over and over in our own homes. Most disks contain graphically scanned indexes and a master index.

The New Jersey disk contains data extracted from Boston, New York and Philadelphia newspapers spanning the years 1704 to 1782. The information was first printed between 1894 and 1917 in 16 volumes by the New Jersey Historical Society. Items cover ship news, runaway slaves and servants, government and criminal activities, relations with Indians, epidemics, advertisements and more.

Call Heritage Books at (800) 398-7709 and ask for disk HA13 for $130.

The two disks for Ohio contain 11 volumes of material pertaining to early history in Madison, Warren, Clark and Franklin counties. The partner disk contains nine volumes of Ohio burial records from Hamilton County. Call the number above and ask about HB11 “Historical and Genealogical Records of West Central Ohio,” which costs $60. disk HA12, “Hamilton County, Ohio, Burial Records,” costs $90.

Maine’s disk is one I need to research. This disk contains nine books - some 5,000 pages - of valuable historical and genealogical data pertaining to what was originally Cumberland County. disk CD8 costs $60. Call Heritage Books for a catalog and full description of each disk.

In a quandary about which genealogy program is right for you? Marthe Arends answers questions in “Genealogy Software Guide.”

The author begins with the questions: “Why use genealogy software?” “How do I choose and evaluate a program?” and “Where can I buy the software?”

What follows is a comprehensive analysis of the major genealogy software programs (they’re mostly IBM compatible, but does include some for Macintosh).

“Genealogy Software Guide” is available at Ancestors Plus in Spokane; or call Genealogical Publishing Co., at (800) 296-6687 to order it for $24.95, plus $3.50 postage.

Also new from Genealogical Publishing is the fourth edition of Elizabeth Petty Bentley’s “The Genealogists Address Book,” the very best comprehensive list of current genealogical and historical resources available.

It contains listings for 25,000 libraries, archives, genealogical and historical societies, government agencies, professional bodies, religious organization and archives, surname registries, newspaper columns, booksellers and much more.

With thousands of new entries, and changes to about 75 percent of existing entries in earlier publications, the new edition is sure to become the most used book on your reference shelf.

Cost is $39.95, plus $3.50 postage, from Genealogical Publishing Co. (at the telephone number above), or at Ancestors Plus.

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