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22 March 2012

Internet valuable to Genealogy researchers & the like.


Genealogy, New England, Family research, family history, family lore


Reading the Editorial page of the "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register" volume166 January 2012 I concur with the author Helen Schatvet Ullman.  In the editorial she discusses how the internet has helped the world of Genealogy.  But there is something all genealogist need to do regarding internet research. she stated in the following passage.

    " Most of us recognize that the Internet is only the tip of the iceberg.  One obstacle to online research is the   copyright law.  Very few recent publications are online.  On various websites we see old errors from early  genealogies repeated over and over again, long after they have been corrected in print.  Many of those        blank spaces after a mother's given name have been filled in by twentieth and twenty-first century               articles and books.  Puzzles have been solved and errors corrected.  But unless...a good library,
we may not know of these developments.  In fact, ...in Melinde Lutz Sanborn's                                       Third Supplement to Torrey's New England Marriages and 
Martin E. Hollick's New Englanders in the 1600's refer to recently published materials under copyright.

Keeping ... reading book reviews and checking new issues of journals that cover areas relevant to your research. The potential rewards are huge, especially an article provides hitherto unknown English origins ... or creates a compiled account of a family out of disparate scraps... ."

 Great editorial  check it out & read the whole of it.  Now bringing yourself round to finding Journals & the kind will benefit your research. 

Boston, Boston Library, Public, History, Family History, research, family research, family lore, family, fun, information, depository, knowledge
photo from: shangchenphoto.com
Boston, Boston Library, Public, History, Family History, research, family research, family lore, family, fun, information, depository, knowledge
photo from: http://laurenmbarrett.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/courtyard.jpg


 For me in the beginnings of my research.  Of course its 1987.     I did not know exactly where to search, I had help from older family historians.  I began by seeking out copy written books etc. then I was most fortunate to find books in the Boston Library.  The first one of value to me was Les Annuals de Lotbinire, 1672-1933  it was of course written in Candien french.  Since I knew a little french and the family name I was able to find out some information.  I was still 5 years away to making the direct connection of the Pierre Beaudet dit DuCap with the previous genration. I would try and work other lines.  At that time I was deep into motherhood and family history was not a huge focus.  Always percolating close by though.

One gem of internet research is Google Books & Archives.org, of course the books contained there are no longer under copyright.  We have many options why not use them all, including the libraries& your local historical society.

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