It's All Relative

Jacobs, A. J. It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017.

Journalist A.J. Jacobs immersed himself in the genealogical community for his latest adventure. He embarks on a quest to host the world's largest family reunion which he called "Global Family Reunion." He befriends many genealogists and enlists celebrities to promote the event and perform or speak at it. I was disappointed in the book. It was more about the global family reunion than it was about genealogical research.While occasional references to genealogical research are made, few persons are going to learn to research their ancestry in a correct manner by reading it. The author promotes the one world trees such as Geni.com far too much rather than emphasizing evidence analysis and reasonably exhaustive research. Reliance on these trees often leads to erroneous conclusions which propogate. The author's casual writing style does not work well for me either. The book employs the hidden footnote system which I detest. How is the reader supposed to know something is cited when no indication is made a footnote is available? This is completely unacceptable in a field such as genealogy where evidence is so important. While I'm happy to see a book about genealogical research published by a major publisher, I would have preferred one which encouraged proper methodology rather than emphasizing online trees. Not recommended.

Using Ancestry's Public Records Collections

I noticed a "shaky leaf" hint on my own entry in my Ancestry tree when I looked today. I wondered about the content of this new record with my personal information. It belonged to Ancestry's "U.S. Public Records Index, Volume 2" collection. I find this collection frustrating because it lacks record dates, a feature that volume 1 generally includes. According to the hint I resided at an address where I never officially lived. My parents moved to that house after I graduated college. In fact my graduate course work neared completion by the time they resided in that home.

So how did this collection decide I lived there? I decided either banking or insurance records must be some of the records in the collection. My parents added me to their bank accounts during my college years, and as they aged, they kept me on the accounts so I could take care of emergencies as they traveled the country in their RV or as their needs dictated. Dad purchased life insurance policies on all his children when we were young, and until near his death, the mailings for those policies continued to go to his home with our names on them.

For most persons, the addresses in these public records collections are places they've actually resided. However, mine was an exception, and I occasionally note other discrepancies in addresses, particularly in young adult years, where children seem to be with their parents but in another location at the same time. In my case, no record date was given, but since I never lived there, it doesn't matter. For others whose parents did not move, they may truly not be "back home" but still out on their own while addresses for some activities continue to remain at their parents' home.

Daring to Hope

Majors, Katie Davis. Daring to Hope: Finding God's Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful. Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2017.

Katie tells the story of her call to Uganda where she became mother to a baker's dozen of girls. Her faith sees her through many circumstances including the loss of a neighbor, a boy's surgeries, and more. After an especially trying time in her life, God provided her with a husband who loves God as well. This is not a deep theological discussion but more of an inspirational title which is likely to be enjoyed more by women than by men. Katie's story is one which demonstrates reliance upon God to meet one's needs. This review is based on an advance reader's copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.

The Family Tree Cemetery Field Guide

Neighbors, Joy. The Family Tree Cemetery Field Guide: How to Find, Record & Preserve Your Ancestors' Graves. Cincinnati: Family Tree Books, 2017.

Journalist Joy Neighbors turns her attention to cemeteries for this title. Neighbors provides rudimentary information on abbreviations and symbols often depicted on markers. She discusses the materials from which markers are made. She provides tips to prepare for a graveyard visit and for photographing stones. These tips include cautions about ways genealogists and others tried to make stones more legible in the past and their harmfulness. She included information on Billion Graves and Find A Grave. The book's organization did not work well for me. Some topics seemed to be treated in sections scattered throughout the book. She introduced topics and then said, "We'll talk about that later." It is unfortunate the book went to press when it did instead of waiting just a few more months. She included information on locating cemetery deeds and types of cemeteries as well. The content is already dated due to Find A Grave's web site redesign. She included multiple screenshots which bear little resemblance to what users are now seeing. A note about the pending redesign was included, and she mentioned the "beta" site was now available. It seems screen shots should have been captured from the beta rather than the "old" version. Sentences felt "choppy" to me. At times I felt the author was "talking down" to readers. In an effort to make her content fill more pages, the author added related content such as death certificates, funeral home records, and obituaries. However, she didn't stop there but went on to include a section on basic genealogical research with checklists. This information, while possibly helpful to a beginner, was unnecessary to meet the book's purpose and wastes paper and the consumer's money, since the purchaser pays for those extra pages. She omitted grave markers made from pottery in her discussion of marker types. These are popular in some parts of the South. They tend to break at the base, but they remain quite readable. Many of the checklists and forms in the book are useful to genealogists, but a similar form can usually be found freely available on the internet. While the book is useful to some beginning researchers, most intermediate and experienced researchers would be better served by purchasing  Douglas Keister's Stories in Stones or Forever Dixie and picking up information on preservation and other topics via articles in Family Tree Magazine, Your Genealogy Today, or on a blog post. The publisher provided an electronic galley of the book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Unquiet Grave

McCrumb, Sharyn. The Unquiet Grave. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017.

McCrumb fictionalizes the story of the "Greenbrier ghost," a true murder story set in Greenbrier County, West Virginia in which the testimony of a ghost was at least partially responsible for a conviction. The cast of characters is an interesting mix of Appalachian mountain folks, scoundrels, African-Americans not that far removed from slavery, and more. Part of the story is narrated by an African-American lawyer who was second on the defense team. His story is told to one of his doctors at the colored asylum. McCrumb's book tour brought her through my city where I heard her discuss the research done on the book. The book's dedication was to a friend and fellow local genealogist who assisted her in the research. She also spoke about her role and finds that day. I knew most of the plot before I read it, but I still really enjoyed the way the story unraveled. Some people commented it took the story awhile to get going. Since I knew what was to come, that was not a problem for me. This book is the all-conference read for the conference at which I'm speaking later in the week, set in the very county where the book is set. The venue for the conference is at the Greenbrier, referred to as the "White Hotel" in the book. The story is a well-done Appalachian story, blending a real life murder trial with Appalachian life and lore. Fans of historical fiction and Appalachian fiction will find much to like in this story.