Friday, September 14, 2007

Family Tree Magazine - November 2007 Issue

The November 2007 issue of Family Tree Magazine came this week, and it is an excellent issue. I always find new information in each issue of this magazine, but this is one of the best.

The Table of Contents is here (this page changes when a new issue is published) - Family Tree Magazine is one of the magazines that has a good web presence. They even have a page for the links in each issue of the magazine - this issue's links are here.

The Feature Articles in this issue were helpful and informative:

* "Over There" by David A. Fryxell. "WW1 records are an essential source for every US genealogist - whether or not your ancestor served." Learn why in our research guide. Here were the answers to my questions from yesterday! There is a World War I Resource Toolkit here - nice work!

* "Little Secrets" by Rick Crume. "Ancestry.com isn't the only place to spend your online genealogy dollar. These 10 worthwhile subscription Web sites may have the data you seek." This was a nice list, although I disagree on several of them. The article had a box with 5 more sites, and another box with a list of free sites with the same databases as the pay sites (for selected databases).

* "Save the Dates" by Nick D'Alto. "Don't let your research fall behind the times: Use these 19 tools to convert dates, calculate birthdays and solve other calendar conundrums."

* "Trace Your African-American Roots" by Bijan C. Bayne. "From slave-era documents to DNA, get expert advice for finding your black ancestors." This article had a great box called "The Name Game" discussing how surnames were selected by former slaves after emancipation. There is an African-American Resource Toolkit here.

* "The Tree Doctor" by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack. "No one's research is immune to bad dates, faulty facts and even downright lies. Don't let these errors infect your family tree - follow our diagnostician's prescription for curing five common genealogical ills." This article was both informative and funny. She identified the five "common genealogical ills" as "genealogist's chorea," "dateitis," "lineagaires disease," "acute faulty logic syndrome," and "inflammatory biography disease." She gives examples for each, and has a box to "Test Your Diagnostic Skills" for three "ailing family histories." You'll have to read the entire article - perhaps the best genealogy article I've read recently.

Of course, there are also the usual columns and departments from Allison Stacy, Diane Haddad, David Fryxell, Maureen Taylor and several others. The State Research Guides are for New York and Wyoming.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable read last night while watching the Padres drop another game - I admit that I concentrated more on the magazine than on the game!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Randy.

Bijan C. Bayne, contrib., "Family Tree" 11-07

Anonymous said...

FwvfDF The best blog you have!