Sunday, May 20, 2007

NGS NewsMagazine - April/May/June 2007 Issue

The April/May/June 2007 issue of the NGS NewsMagazine (Volume 33, Number 2) is chock full of interesting and useful articles and news items.

The Table of Contents includes the following Feature Articles:
  • It's spring in Virginia, by Barbara Vines Little - page 11
  • A big Thank You to our 2006 volunteers - page 12
  • NGS Statement of Financial Position - page 14
  • Reminiscences of Salt Lake City, by Linda Veltze - page 16
  • The Virginia Peninsula - birth place of a colony, a state, and a nation, by Eric G. Grundset - page 18
  • What is the standard of proof in genealogy, by Thomas W. Jones - page 22
  • Of dog shows and standards, by Elissa Scalise Powell - page 27
  • Traffic and trade on the colonial coast, by Jeffrey L. Haines - page 30
  • Developing good research habits, by Paula Stuart-Warren - page 43
  • Preparing a successful lineage society application, by Barbara Jean Mathews - page 46
  • Case Study: Searching for Babe Ruth, by Beau Sharbrough - page 52.
There are also Columns:
  • National Archives, by Claire Prechtel-Kluskens - page 35
  • Beginning Genealogy, by Gary M. and Diana Crisman Smith - page 40
  • Software Review, by Barbara Schenck - page 56
  • Technology, by Drew Smith - page 58
  • Writing Family History, by Harold E. Hinds - page 62.
I especially enjoyed the Thomas Jones article about the Genealogical Proof Standard - he used a case study example to demonstrate each part of the GPS.

The Jeffrey Haines article about colonial trade was intriguing - you get a good overview of how the colonies traded with each other and with Europe and the Caribbean.

The Beginning Genealogy column by the Smiths discussed research methods, and defined direct lineage, family group lineage, collateral lines, cluster genealogy and contemporary descendancy or family reunion research. This was a wonderful article for beginners and experts alike.

The Babe Ruth case study by Beau Sharbrough was interesting also. He found the Babe in the 1900, 1910 and 1930 census, and World War I and II draft registration cards. Beau used an Archives image, not an Ancestry image for show and tell.

The software review was "Family Atlas" - an excellent summary of the capabilities of this package.

The focus of the NGS NewsMagazine is on the breadth of genealogy research topics - beginner to expert, traditional to online resources, databases to publications. That is much different from some of the other popular periodicals. I think that we have to read ALL of these periodicals to be successful at genealogy research.

No comments: