Tuesday, July 24, 2007

NGS Quarterly Table of Contents - June 2007 Issue

The National Genealogical Society Quarterly for June 2007 (Volume 98, Number 2) came yesterday, and I'm already half way through it.

The Table of Contents includes these articles:

"John Bush of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, Master Horn Carver" by Charles W. Thayer Ph.D. and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, FASG - page 85

"Using Cluster Methodology to Backtrack an Ancestor: The Case of John Bradberry" by William M. Lichtman, Ph.D., CG - page 103

"Reality Behind the Legends: The Search for Nellie West's Father" by Robert E. Hoagland - page 117

"A Maiden Name for Mercy: Indirect Evidence of the Wife of Benjamin Burgess of Dartmouth, Massachusetts" by Thomas Knight Burgess - page 127

"Cornelius McDermott Roe: Indentured Servant to George Washington" by Nathan W. Murphy, AG - page 135

"Old Letters and Even Older Envelopes: A Hill Family of Cornwall, Wales and Somerset" by Ronald A. Hill, Ph.D, CG, FASG - page 147.

The book reviews include:

"The Sea Captain's wife..." by Martha Hodes.

"Dennis Darling of Braintree and Mendon and Some of His Descendants, 1662 to 1800" by William A. Martin and Lou Ella J. Martin.

"Some Descendants of John Sibley of Salem, Massachusetts" by Helen Schatvet Ullmann.

"Arizona Genealogical and Historical Research Guide: Early sources for southern Arizona ..." by Barbara Baldwin Salyer and Jean Powell Banowit.

"Finding Indiana Ancestors: A Guide to Historical Research" edited by M. Theresa Baer and Geneil Breeze.

"Proprietary Records of South Carolina, Vol. 1, Abstracts of the Records of the Secretary of the Province, 1675-1695" edited by Susan Baldwin Bates and Harriott Cheves Leland.

"Proprietary Records of South Carolina, Vol. 2, Abstracts of the Records of the Register of the Province, 1675-1695" edited by Susan Baldwin Bates and Harriott Cheves Leland."

* The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy," 3rd ed., edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking.

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As I've posted before, the value of NGSQ (and NEHGR and TAG) to me is not in the specific families covered in their articles, but in the research examples that can be emulated in my own research or that of others. For example, one of my society colleagues is stuck on her family research in Arkansas in the 1850 time frame. The Cluster Methodology article is perfect for her to use as a boilerplate on how to proceed further with her research. The article on the search for the father of Nellie West in the Philadelphia area around 1900 is very similar to another society colleague's problem in finding her John Robinson Hall - she can use the article as a guide for resources in the Philadelphia area. I'm, going to take this issue with me to the CVGS Research Group tomorrow.

I am wondering why the NGS (and by extension, the other societies also) does not put a Table of Contents (similar to what I've listed above) on their web site for researchers to peruse online? In this age of online resources, it would be invaluable for a researcher to be able to find a reference to an article about a specific family or locality. More members/subscribers might be the result. I know that NGS and NEHGS have email newsletters but they go mainly to subscribers/members. I just think that more could be done to market the societies in a relatively inexpensive manner.

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