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The
Genealogist's All-in-One Address Book
(CD 115)
Reviewed by Marthe Arends
Take
a mini quiz:
- What's the address of the Hoyt Family Association?
- Name an Armenian genealogical society.
- What records does the Graham County Courthouse in Arizona hold?
If you can't answer those questions off the top of your head, you may
want to invest in The Genealogist's All-in-One Address Book.
This CD contains the text from three books compiled by renown author
Elizabeth Petty Bentley: County Courthouse Book (2nd edition),
Directory of Family Associations (the 1993-94 edition), and
The Genealogist's Address Book (3rd edition). Since the three
books contained on the CD do not include any family data, it does
not contain actual images of the books, just the text. The three
books combined provide a reference to over 21,000 addresses!
The County Courthouse Book has addresses, phone numbers, and
brief information about the holdings for U.S. County Courthouses. The
information was gleaned from a survey Ms. Bentley sent out — unfortunately,
not all the counties responded in great detail, but as a rule information
is listed about land, naturalization, probate, and vital records. Some
counties have further information — some have none.
The Directory of Family Associations volume has information
about family associations, other surname groups, databases, periodicals,
reunions, etc. As with the County Courthouse Book, the information
in this book is based largely upon a questionnaire, hence information
for some entries is more detailed than others. Generally speaking, you
can find references to a surname society's address and contact person,
group's periodical titles, membership information, and more.
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November
17, 1997
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The Genealogist's Address Book is a wonderful reference
which is useful for all genealogists with listings for just about
any category you can think of: National Archives, government departments,
State Archives, vital records offices, libraries (local, state,
and national), Historical and Genealogical Societies (local, state,
and national), publications, ethnic resources (libraries, archives,
societies, etc.), religious organizations (including archives),
lineage societies, surname registries, Computer Interest Groups
and software vendor information, newspaper columns, electronic
publishers, booksellers, and much, much more! I was dazzled with
the amount of information presented, and my only complaint was
that the book published in 1995 and some of the information is
outdated.
Information for archives, societies, etc. includes address,
phone, hours, membership information, and publications.
The CD does not contain an index, but it can be searched
for any text using the Search Expert. You can use wildcards
to search, and further search information is available in
the Introduction. Even with some outdated entries, The
Genealogist's All-in-One Address Book is a great reference
tool for new and experienced researchers.
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Marthe Arends has
been involved in genealogy for 18 years. She has lectured on computers and genealogy
to many groups, has been the SysOp of a Fidonet genealogy BBS, has written articles
for a variety of genealogy publications, and currently writes fiction. Marthe has also written Genealogy
Software Guide and Genealogy
on CD-ROM, both published by the Genealogical
Publishing Company.
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