The Family Tree
By Terence L. Day
Terence L. Day, genealogist and journalist, is on the Washington State University faculty. He welcomes e-mail at genealogy@moscow.com, or regular mail in care of the Tri-City Herald City newsroom, P.O. Box 2608, Tri-Cities, WA 99302-2608.
Research outlines guide genealogists
This story was published July 16, 2000
Have I got a deal for you!
My apologies for sounding like a used car salesman, but this is one of the most valuable resources genealogists can lay their hands on.
And it's free.
To use the Family History SourceGuide, published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, just go to the www.familysearch.org/sg on the Web.
Or you can buy a copy on compact disc for the truly bargain price of $10 by calling 800-537-5971.
The CD contains more than 150 resource guides from the LDS Family History Library.
This includes 76 searchable outlines that describe records of interest to genealogists and research strategies. In addition, there are such things as forms for recording information from federal census records and other help.
The advantage of buying this on CD is that it is always at your finger tips, 24 hours a day. The disadvantage is that you have to remember where you put it.
If you're thinking about buying the CD, be sure to check the computer requirements, which are published on the LDS Web site.
Research outlines are written for specific areas. There is one for each state, each Canadian province, and many foreign countries.
Perhaps the best way to get an idea of how research outlines might help you find some of your ancestors is to fire up the computer and go to www.familysearch.org/sg. Click on "How-to-Guides." This will give you a list of research guides.
Click on one that looks interesting to you. For instance, if you are looking for an ancestor you know lived in Kentucky, scroll down the list of outlines until you come to Kentucky.
Click on the name, "Kentucky Research Outline," and your Web browser will take you to the outline, which describes major sources of information about people who lived in Kentucky and how to access them.
Many of the sources are available from local Family History Centers, which are branches of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. About 3,400 of these centers operate in 64 countries.
Let's say you are looking for an ancestor who family lore says lived in Lexington in the first part of the 19th century. Oh happy day! The Kentucky Research Outline will alert you to the existence of city directories for Lexington from 1806 through 1935.
The Family History Library has them on microfiche, and you can borrow them for reading at your local Family History Center.
Another example of invaluable information in the research outlines is the entry for the Filson Club. The Club has folders containing records of approximately 3,000 Kentucky families. They are filed by surname, but haven't been microfilmed. So the outline gives you the address to write the Filson Club.
Research outlines give genealogists a tremendous amount of information about records in specific localities and how to access them. Every city, county, state, province and country is different. That's one of the reasons research outlines are so valuable. Not even professional genealogists could accumulate and use such a volume of diverse facts.
So, if you're stumped in your search for ancestors in a locality, grab a research outline for that area and spend a little time studying it. It could pay big dividends.