This book offered fresh solutions to search for family 'missing links'. I garnered some ideas for researching a dead end or two in my own family tree. Recommended for genealogy hobbyists.

This is a surprisingly helpful book on researching your family tree. I'm so used to everything being about paid subscriptions to ancestry.com and this goes so far beyond that. Really helpful. I also like that he gives all kinds of resources to do research and tells which are paid and which are free. Some resources are specifically for researching African American genealogy, which is especially helpful for those who have a harder time with research since enslaved people were not recorded the way others were for many terrible reasons and can be harder to research.

A great resource.

Note that Goodreads has this and the workbook lumped together as one book, and the reviews seem to be for either one. Practical genealogy is the book itself. There is also a very helpful workbook that I adore (it even has information about recording LGBTQ and adopted families with sensitive, great advice there, plus great spaces for your research and family tree).

I read an ARC of this book for review.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Callisto Media/Rockridge Press for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. I found this to be a great resource and informative. I haven't done a lot of genealogy since my mom died and I got her into the DAR. This makes me want to get back into the research mode! This is a great refresher. 5 stars

Like a lot of people, I sort of fell into family history. My mom had recently died, and I’d suddenly become an orphan at the ripe old age of 50 - connecting to family through genealogy helped me regain my footing after feeling untethered and alone. I started with what little I knew, and pretty much winged it for the first year.

To say I made some mistakes is an understatement.

I eventually went back to school and became a professional genealogist, and set about correcting a lot of those organization errors I’d put in place in the beginning.

All which is to say, I wish I’d picked up a book like Practical Genealogy years ago. The author does a terrific job of laying a solid foundation for genealogical research, and that is really critical. Going back to do things right is an often overwhelming task - much better to start smart from the beginning!

There are tips and procedures for everything from dealing with photos and understanding genetic v ancestral research, to creating a file system and developing a timeline.

The author also introduces various types of documents and how to understand and use them, including federal, state and local census and land records, vital statistics, immigration, financial and military records, as well as others.

Practical Genealogy also includes a wealth of information about locating, understanding and conducting genealogy for African Americans, as well as for adopted, bound out and orphaned children.

And finally, the author includes information about preserving your research for future generations in the form of written family histories and heirlooms.

If you or someone you know is thinking about entering the fascinating world of genealogy, I highly recommend getti Nd a copy of Practical Genealogy. It covers most of the information a new researcher neeeds to know about and understand, while providing enough historical information to our family history into a bigger context. Even as an experienced genealogist, I found several great tips and plenty to love about this book

This review is based on an advance copy read.

This title is exactly as described; it provides an excellent and practical guide to exploring family history.  Just a few of the many things that a reader can find out from this book include learning how to research land records, learning what can be found out from a "binding order" and ways to listen to the music of one's cultural heritage.  Each section of this book is short and practical.  I think that this book will be useful to many and , most especially, to those who are just beginning their exploration.


Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.