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Collecting Dead Relatives

Gosh, it’s November already. We’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving in just a few weeks and you know what happens after that – Christmas. This year Christmas may be a bit different because of the backlogs in shipping merchandise. Amazon no longer seems to be able to promise one-day deliveries. Fortunately, CGS does not have that problem. We have shelves full of books for sale and library committee volunteers ready to mail out books, or better yet, you can drop in the library and pursue the shelves yourselves. And, even better, all our books are bargains.

In this post I am highlighting some of the lighter offerings – things you might want to purchase and gift for someone younger or someone who isn’t sure they want to delve into serious genealogical research.

First up is Collecting Dead Relatives by Laverne Galener-Moore. This book was among one of the recent donations to the library. I picked up the donation and delivered it to the library – all but this little book which I held onto for a few days, read, and then took it to the library. It’s a fun book. The author writes about the typical experiences we genealogists get up to like hanging out in county courthouses so we can rifle through deeds and land records. She has a delightful sense of humor which makes this an easy yet informative read.

Another book that was slightly delayed in getting to the library is It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree by A.J. Jacobs. The theme of this book is that we are all related in some way. A.J. decided to plan a world family reunion and invite, well, everyone. He hoped to break the world record for hosting the largest reunion ever. It’s All Relative consists of 46 short chapters each of which covers a different perspective on family research. It is also light, very funny and at the same time quite provocative. A.J. poses a number of serious questions that deserve consideration.

Dozens of Cousins

Dozens of Cousins: Blue Genes, Horse Thieves, & Other Relative Surprises in Your Family Tree by Lois Horowitz is similar to It’s All Relative but includes relationship charts, sample family trees, research tips and secrets, and templates for getting started with family research. Sounds perfect for a young person that you hope to pique their interest in genealogy. 

The last book I want to tell you about is Tips & Quips for the Family Historian. This is a cute little book – literally, it is about 6” high and only a few pages – but don’t be fooled. The authors are Elizabeth Shown Mills and Ruth Brossette Lennon. So this is a serious book that will appeal to anyone and be informative. It consists of about 90 chapters of short tips and quips on subjects such as gullibility, luck, migration, poor folks, stories & storytelling and trivial details. A good example from the chapter on accuracy is from Will Rogers – “It’s not what we don’t know that hurts. It’s what we know that ain’t so.”

These and many other books are on our “For Sale” shelf in the library and can be yours for a donation to the society. Contact [email protected] if you are interested. You can come into the library to pick up books or a library committee volunteer will mail them to you.