Finding Your Roots: Easy-to-Do Genealogy and Family History

Finding YourRoots: Easy-to-Do Genealogy and Family History

By Janice Schultz

Huron Street Press, 2013. 230 pages. Nonfiction

This is a welcome and useful introduction to doing U.S. family history from the perspective of one who is both a librarian and a genealogist. The book tells the reader how to get started on family history and then focuses on the different record types: where to find them and how to use them. Each chapter introduces and focuses on a set of related records: The First Steps in Finding Records (much about U.S. census records here); Federal, State, and Local Government Records (includes wills & probates, land & deed records, tax records, and naturalization records); Military, Church, and Cemetery Records; and Printed and Internet Sources. Schultz includes a little bit on doing Native American and African American research in a chapter that introduces immigration records.

The text is illustrated with images of the wide variety of record types and each chapter is supplemented with a section listing a few internet resources. This book should be enough to get anyone started on their U.S. research. Once the records take them out of the country they will need to look for guidance beyond this little introduction.

SML