Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tuesday's Tip - Ancestry.com Family History Wiki is FREE

Today's Tuesday's Tip is to use the FREE Ancestry.com Family History Wiki to learn more about genealogy research methodology and resources.

There are three main collections at present on the Family History Wiki:

1)  The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy -- The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy is a reference book published by Ancestry Publishing. The first edition was published in 1984 and was edited by Arlene H. Eakle and Johni Cerny. A revised edition, edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, was published in 1997. The current edition, the third, was published in 2006 and was also edited by Szucs and Luebking.

This book is separated into chapters dealing with specific research topics (e.g., census, church, court, military, etc.).  A reader can use this book to learn about genealogy research techniques and record types.

2)  Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources --  Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources is a reference book published by Ancestry Publishing. The first edition, called Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources was published in 1989 and was edited by Alice Eichholz, Ph.D., CG. A revised edition was published in 1992. The current edition, the third, was published in 2004 when the title was changed to simply Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.

This book provides summaries of resources available in each American state, broken down by research topic.  A reader can learn about the history, record availability, and specific research opportunities in each state.

3)  Other content added by Ancestry.com and other contributors.  One major area added so far is the United States County Lists.  There are lists of counties for each state, and a wiki page for each county in each state.  However, most of the County pages have not been fully populated with information about resources and repositories.   
 
Contributors can add content to any of the Family History Wiki pages.  See the Main Page for information on how to contribute.

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