Building your genealogy library

I always stop by my mom's on Tuesdays after work. My visit is for several reasons ... to make sure she's okay, mostly. But we also catch up on family news and I pick her brain for information she may remember about the family or just about growing up, living and working in the Atlanta area.

Last Tuesday the conversation got around to Atlanta since I told her I had accidentally stumbled across my husband's relatives in Atlanta in 1889 and 1890 (Platt, Bishop, Jones and Winters, in case you're curious). I told her that Ancestry.com (a for-pay site on the Internet) had the Atlanta City Directory online, with names of people who lived and worked there in those years.

She didn't understand what I was talking about at first, and thought I had an actual book. But I told her that it was online and searchable.

"How did it get there?" she asked.

"Somebody typed it all up and put it online," I answered.

"Why would anyone do that?" she asked.

And that gave me the idea for this column.

Why would anyone do that? Those who are not in the genealogy world would never understand, but that is the way we share information these days.

There is a vast amount of information available online and in reference books on genealogy. And many of the books are available for purchase. Some of them include written transcriptions of census records, marriage records, wills, deeds and land transfers, excerpts from newspapers and, of course, those little mini-family history books I wrote about some time ago. Some of this information also is available online under the various county Web pages. These books are done by ordinary people like you and me and are usually priced very reasonably.

If you are serious about your genealogy, you will want to purchase some of these books eventually. So, how do you find them and which ones should you buy? How much do they cost? Hang on ... I'm about to tell you.

If you had a lot of ancestors in a certain area for any length of time, it would behoove you to purchase county record books for that area. The very first purchase I made was "Heard County Cemeteries" since I had quite a few ancestors there from several different lines. I have referred to it many times, not only for my own purposes, but also to help others who were looking in the same area. Remember, some of the people looking for ancestors in Georgia don't live here and their access to Georgia books is limited.

Just as an example of what you can expect to find in these reference books, cemetery books contain a listing of all the known cemeteries in the county and all the people buried in them. They also give all the information found on the headstones. The Heard book was done by members of the Heard County Historical Society back in 1977-78. It cost $25 and was well worth the price.

Cemetery books are available for several, but not all counties. A book on Fayette County cemeteries is available from the Fayette County Historical Society.

Marriage records are available several ways. You can find the original marriage records in record books at the courthouse in the county where the marriage occurred; you can find them on microfilm at county libraries and genealogy libraries; and you can find them in books where someone has gone over the original marriage books or microfilm and put them in written form. These are usually lumped together in order of the marriage books (Marriage Book A, book B, etc.) or by years (1826-1900).

Local genealogy libraries also offer genealogy reference books. I found an excellent one on LaGrange and Troup County at the Troup County Archives in LaGrange. The Coweta County Genealogy Library has books for sale on Coweta County, including censuses for several years. Carroll County has a vast amount of books on their area because of the hard work done by members of their genealogical society. I think, without a doubt, I would say that Carroll County has proved to be the most "user-friendly" place to do genealogy work.

Many genealogical quarterlies give book reviews in their publications and include the name of the person from whom the books may be purchased.

Books can be either hard- or soft-bound, typed or professionally printed, and prices range from $5 to about $80.

Here are a few of my favorite sites for books:

http://www.countyheritagebooks.com/. County family and history books for many states, including Georgia.

http://www.genealogy-books.com/. Jeanette Austin's collection of books and CDs.

http://www.genealogybookshop.com/genealogybookshop/index.html. Many topics for many areas.

http://www.mountainpress.com/. Great little inexpensive books with lots of information.

http://www.georgiahistory.com/books.htm. Books offered by the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah.

Also, Barnes & Noble and eBay often have rare and out-of-print books, and the county historical society Web sites list books they have for sale. Go to the Georgia GenWeb, table, counties, and see what books are offered for Georgia. You can also put a query on any Genforum or Rootsweb message board and you will be flooded with responses.

That should get you started. Make your wish list if you can't afford many of them right now. Tell your relatives this is what you want for Christmas. You'll soon have a respectable library of genealogy books. Then you can be one of those "lookup" people you hear about on the Internet. Have fun!

I'm still looking for stories about your Georgia ancestors who lived in the Atlanta metro area. Send them to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; E-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

Until next week, happy hunting!