"Tracing Our Roots" Newsletter Archive (A monthly genealogy newsletter written by the late Brenda Kellow, dec'd, for the Plano Star Courier newspaper. We've included all the ones we could recover.)
Important sources for all family historians of all skill levels are census records, vital records and courthouse records. The latter is vital for hunting those early settlers who lived in the county. Within these records inside the dusty courthouse walls is where you can plot the lives of those who lived so long ago.
There are many different kinds of courthouse records, some with subtle clues that just might be missed by the casual researcher. To insure this does not happen to you, there are two new publications that you should read and purchase for your own personal library. Then, when you are going on a courthouse field trip, just scoop these two books off your shelves and carry them with you on the hunt. Neither are expensive or heavy.
The first is Courthouse Research for Family Historians, Your Guide to Genealogical Treasures by Christine Rose. Inside the 219 pages, Christine Rose interprets each record and untangles the plethora of legalese. It is a book rich with information and case studies for all of the record files.
The second book by Ms. Rose is Courthouse Indexes Illustrated. If you have searched courthouse indexes in the past, you know there are many different indexing systems that lead to the records themselves. This is the only book I have ever found that tackles each index system, explains the system simply, illustrates what each one looks like. It makes it so simple you will know how to use a specific index in a matter of seconds to alleviate wasting precious time.
For under $30 both of these books can be yours. Each is worth its weight in gold. These are available at some local bookstores, over the Internet through Amazon.com, or from the publisher at http://christine4rose.com/Rosebooks.html#anchor23364.
WORLD WAR II CASUALTIES
Southern Methodist University is digitizing the World War II casualties to place online. They have already published those for Arkansas, Connecticut and Texas. Besides giving the names of those killed, they list the wounded, those that died in prison camps and those released from prison camps. Find it at http://ww2.smu.edu/.
WORLDCAT SEARCH ENGINE ONLINE
WorldCat is one of the most powerful search engines online and it is available to everyone free of charge thanks to OCLC (Online Computer Library Center). From the home page, http://worldcat.org/, you can read an explanation of exactly what it is and what it does, or use the Focus on Genealogy page for searches at http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/genealogy/default.htm. You are going to like WorldCat and you will want to bookmark it.
ENGLAND S ANGLICAN RECORDS ONLINE
Finally, those family historians searching for English Anglican church records now have a new site to use. It is http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/librariesandarchives/familyhistory/index.html. Much of what you will find will be located across the country, but at least you have a source to follow.
Brenda Kellow, dec'd, Certified Genealogist and Certified Genealogical Instructor, had a Bachelor s Degree in history and taught genealogy courses at the local Community College and computer genealogy at the University.
