Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A First Class Reference For All Genealogists, April 21 2004
This review is from: How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy (Paperback)
When I first began researching my genealogy in the 1980's, I made sure that I read all the "how-to-do-it" books in print. I had quickly learned that I was becoming involved in something more than looking at a census or filling out a chart. Learning from others with more experience helped me develop my research skills and saved me from a lot of trial and error learning. As genealogy has become one of the most popular pursuits, the need for guidance has grown, too. The number of those "how-to" books has increased, but some offer more than others, especially since technology has come to play such a large role in our research. This book fills a real need. From beginning with home resources to making use of all the technology available, George gives his readers 472 pages of first class advice and information. The book is intensely readable, and the examples are clear and to the point. Both the beginner and the advanced researcher will benefit from chapters on using the Internet, locating advanced records, and following alternate paths to find the records you need. One of the best features of the book is the chapter "Plan A Very Successful Genealogical Research Trip". When spending the time, effort, and cash to get to a research locality, we want to be as successful as possible. Planning is the key. George gives step-by-step directions to get prepared and uses practical examples to illustrate just how to do this. I know I will be more successful on my next trip because of things I learned here.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
58 of 60 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A First Class Reference For All Genealogists, April 21 2004
By Linda Kleback - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy (Paperback)
When I first began researching my genealogy in the 1980's, I made sure that I read all the "how-to-do-it" books in print. I had quickly learned that I was becoming involved in something more than looking at a census or filling out a chart. Learning from others with more experience helped me develop my research skills and saved me from a lot of trial and error learning. As genealogy has become one of the most popular pursuits, the need for guidance has grown, too. The number of those "how-to" books has increased, but some offer more than others, especially since technology has come to play such a large role in our research. This book fills a real need. From beginning with home resources to making use of all the technology available, George gives his readers 472 pages of first class advice and information. The book is intensely readable, and the examples are clear and to the point. Both the beginner and the advanced researcher will benefit from chapters on using the Internet, locating advanced records, and following alternate paths to find the records you need. One of the best features of the book is the chapter "Plan A Very Successful Genealogical Research Trip". When spending the time, effort, and cash to get to a research locality, we want to be as successful as possible. Planning is the key. George gives step-by-step directions to get prepared and uses practical examples to illustrate just how to do this. I know I will be more successful on my next trip because of things I learned here.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
comprehensive but tedious reference, May 13 2007
By Robert Reid - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy (Paperback)
This book is certainly comprehensive... it covers the expected range of genealogy topics, from vital records to selecting technology tools and planning a genealogy research trip. But, for all the value that thorough and linear thinking has in the field of genealogy research, Morgan's writing style is unnecessarily tedious. For example, when talking about pedigree charts, he describes how you write your own name on line number one, then actually goes out of the way to explain to us that "the next pair of lines is numbered 2 and 3" before describing to us what these next lines are all about. And though he does devote some text to technology, this is discussed mostly in separate chapters at the end and he fails to incorporate as a central theme the role technology can play in alleviating the tedium of research. In short, this book could have been written in half as many pages without losing much on substance. It's definitely not the kind of book you can read from cover-to-cover, even chapter-by-chapter. I found the Genealogy Handbook by Ellen Galford to be a much better starting point. However, given the comprehensiveness of this book and its decent index, this book still maintains some value as a reference.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorite Genealogy Books of all time, Nov 26 2008
By D. Fleming "The Ancestry Detective" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy (Paperback)
As a genealogy instructorHow to Do Everything with Your Genealogy is one of the best recommendations I can make for new and intermediate genealogists. This book is easy to read, flows really well and has personal examples by the author inserted throughout that shows how the author followed his own advice and was successful in his searches... That is key to a good how to book in any genre....are the steps explained in such a way that it is easy to duplicate with your own research. This book is that.
|
|
|