Genealogy Books

Black Roots in Southeastern Connecticut, 1650-1900, represents a milestone in the publishing of African-American genealogy. Authors Brown and Rose spent eight years gathering every shred of information they could find on approximately 2,000 African-American families who inhabited one or more of 26 counties in Southeastern Connecticut. Their sources consisted primarily of U.S. census records from 1790 through 1870 and secondarily on manumission records, deeds, probate records, diaries, church records, and military records. In particular, Brown and Rose have amassed an amazing amount of information on blacks who were living in an area that, on the eve of the Revolutionary War, had one of the largest slave populations in New England. The authors cite the specific source for each element appearing in their genealogical sketches. The brief introduction summarizes some of the challenges of investigating black roots, while the bibliography, name index, and subject index at the back of the volume make using the book quite easy.

Clearfield Company would like to express its appreciation to the New London County Historical Society, the publisher of these two books, for allowing us to make them available to our patrons.

this book is a must have for blacks aswell as Native americans in Rhode Island and Conneticut it has 90 % of what most people are looking for ancestors and concrete genealogy so if you find it get

A gift for my wife, so here is her review:

My Review of the book "Blood Traitors" written by Marq De Villiers & Sheila Hirtle



This book was suggested a `must read' from a recently found distant cousin in California. I had been researching my Merck/Merk line for many years, and was especially happy to find this book for that reason.

In the history books I read while in school (over half a century ago) we studied nothing about the palatines, nor any other ethnic groups who came to America besides those on the Mayflower. However, through the years and in my own research, I had read about the Dutch indentured Palatines in upstate NY as this is in my husband's German genealogy, and, I had read about those palatines who were shipped off to Ireland to get them out of England, but I knew nothing of those who went to the Carolinas. So finding this book, and, having a small portion of my Merck family line included as well, was especially interesting to me. However, aside from this special meaning for me - I certainly would recommend this book to anyone for the following reasons:

In my opinion, Blood Traitors was very well written, and fully documented about the palatines who went to the Carolinas. For anyone doing research, documentation is a must. At times it was in greater detail than I really liked, however, there was a point to be made, and understandably so, which I did fully understand while reading it, bloody as it was.

This book for me was a real eye opener, as to the many different horrors of the American Revolutionary War, but offered a very good insight as to why some palatines became Loyalist and others Patriots. I had never read any book so detailed about any war like this before, yet because of the explicit details, it brought forth a very clear understanding and a different point of view of the Loyalist as well. For me, it was good learning why some palatines became Loyalists. I would say this book is definitely a `page turner' and I truly loved it. I'm sure I will one day read it again, and yes, I have already recommended it to others in our German genealogy group as a "must read" as it was recommended to me. I'd like to see it placed in all of the special collections libraries for palatine researchers. It really is that good.

Thank you for asking for my review of this book.

Marie Earing, Albuquerque, New Mexico

As a descendant of the ZIMMERMAN family in this book, I found it extremely interesting and well worth reading; not only for folks like me, but also for others merely interested in the traumatic history surrounding families during war times ... Revo. or Civil war.

While the book is 'fiction' on the family members dialogues, nevertheless, in talking to the authors, I ascertained that the facts surrounding the happenings were all based on documented and researched actions of the day.

In my case, it gave me goose bumples reading what ancestoral members of my family went thru day by day; and it made me even more proud of my ancestors than ever before. Not only did they suffer tremendously to come over here from old Europe, but once here, and the war drums began to beat, they then suffered even more horrific experiences than one, in America, can imagine.

My rating ... a 10, but it only goes up to 5 ... so a 5 PLUS !
Chuck

Everyone who sees an autograph of a known personality has to sit up and take notice.
There are many sides to the whole business of autographs. Many collect them with the hopes of selling them and making a quick buck.The autograph of just about anyone and in a variety of forms,is available ;all one has to do is find a dealer and come up with the coin.The more recent explosion of signatures of sports and other celeberities is something new;but there has always been an interest in collecting a signature both for the plesasure gained as well as for prophet.
Hamilton's book was published in 1978,and covers all aspects of autographs. Almost 30 years has slipped under the bridge since then,so the prices in it must be viewed with that in mind. Nonetheless,the relative comparison probably holds.
After one puts the price aside,this book is fascinating. Hamilton ,who is the established authority,gives us the benifit of over 50 years of knowledge he has developed in finding,evaluating,collecting and selling autographs from many time periods and all walks of life.
Alhough, not an autograph collector,I found it a real treat to look at the 1000 autographs included.Hamilton also covers interesting details about the autographs,how they were found,etc.Just to see what the autograph of some famous person looked like makes this book a real treat.Some are plainer than dirt,some are almost works of art,some are almost unintelligible,some are surprising,and on and on.
Hamilton shows that there are many fake autographs floating around and it is very easy to be taken in, if one is not just as expert in assessing an autograph,as the person who is selling it.
He explains what makes an autograph "valuable" ,and explains that the autograph of a person will vary tremensously ;depending on a whole lot of factors.
I was very surprised that he did not mention anything about an author's signature in a book.So many "book signings " are taking place today;that one has to come to the conclusion,that this type of autograph has little other than personal pleasure value.I have stood in lineups to obtain my own "signed copy" ,not for how much I thought I could sell it for or how much it might be worth someday.After reading this book,I am well satisfied with the attitude I have taken.
While it is fun to line up,meet,and have an author sign a book;you should let that be your enjoyment.
I often attend large used book sales run at universities and other organizations and often see books selling cheaply that have been signed ; most likely at "book signings"
Although I don't go out of my way searching for autographs;I stumbled across a book signed by President Truman ,while in office.It also had inside a note on White House stationery. It was a real treat for me to find it,particularly as I've always admired him.What it is worth is not of particular interest to me.

Front-paper: "The World's foremost authority writes about the joys of collecting autographs, presenting approsimately 1,000 reproductions (facsimiles) of famous (or notorious!) signatures--many of them accompanied by engaging text or embellished with artwork by the signers. The parade of names and the remarkable aspect of their personalities, as depicted in a host of anecdotes, are staggering. The book is divided into categories: world leaders, authors, artists, composers, frontiersmen and Indians, explorers, inventors, famous women, black leaders, jurists, financiers, entertainment personalities, sports figures, military and naval heroes, criminals and outlaws, royalty, scientists, religious leaders, Nazi and Fascist leaders, embracing some ten centuries." Also lists 5,000 prices for these people in DS, ADS, LS, TLS, SP.

One grandfather was a meatpacker, the other a Harvard doctor. Both parents from Ireland. I'm an attorney. This book explains how. Best book I ever read, and I've read a lot.

Brings the old and new world of political intrigue and Irish lore together in a grand way. The story is alive with rich image and bold imagination. Scenes of Irish daring and courage abound.

The title of this beautifully written, historically rich prequel to Hopkins' "Spirits in the Field," that takes us deeper into the lives of the Hopkins families of Pike County in Eastern Kentucky in the 19th century and the effects of the Civil War on them and their region, comes from a version of the old English tune, "The Water is Wide." "The water is wide, I can't cross o'er, nor do I have bright wings to fly, give us a boat, which can carry two, and both shall row, my love and I..." It is an apt title, because "crossing over," from the past to the future, from one stage of life to the next, from grief to survival, from one political position to another because of change and war, is at the core of this story.
Hopkins successfully blends first-person narration, of his own research that corroborates tales told him by his grandmother Rissie, and his own musings and analysis, with gripping third-person storytelling, often using italics and flashbacks as a way to delve more deeply into a certain time period, life of one of the characters, and his or their memories. With a passion and sacred duty to tell the stories, he weaves their fates together with suspense and compassion. Family relationships reveal a sequence of love stories, with the author's great-great-great grandfather Elisha Hopkins and his four wives at the center, like a massive tree whose branches are the generations of people whose stories unfold like leaves. And like the leaves of Indian Summer and Redbud Winter, they fall, becoming part of the tapestry of the tale. By the end of the book, the location of each person's burial place is explained, thus fulfilling Hopkins' goal of making whole what had been torn when the family cemeteries were moved to make way for Route 460 in Pike County, the subject of his first book.
Pike County, specifically Greasy Creek which flows into the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy, is treated with the same attention to detail and empathy as are the generations of people. We see how closely tied Virginia and Kentucky have been historically, and how the war drew sons from the same family into both sides, Union and Confederate. The Civil War "destroyed nearly everything they had built, and more importantly, nearly everything they believed." Special attention is given to the units his own ancestors fought in, the [Confederate] Tenth Kentucky Cavalry and the [Union] Thirty-ninth Kentucky Mounted Infantry. Hopkins brings to life the action, calamities, and repercussions of a war fought on the doorstep of families who lost their livelihoods, their men, and their hope. Woven through the family tales is the history of the importance of Saltville (VA) to both sides, the Battle of Saltville, the ridge-top skirmishes, the marauding deserters, the hunger and desperation of the women and children left alone, and the military atrocities of Union General Stephen Gano Burbridge, "still the most hated man in Kentucky."
There are surprises in this book in addition to the gratifying validation of the accuracy of his grandmother's stories. In the heart of this eloquent recounting of a family saga in wartime, is a soft center: a small pillow. It symbolizes, as a genteel gift created in a calm and prosperous time with hope of an abundant future, the whole era and its telling. The story of the pillow links a former Vice President of the United States to Elisha Hopkins' cabin and daughter on the eve of war as the powerful Confederate leader, John Cabell Breckinridge, came to a mountaintop for advice and strength to proceed....and left with both and with a pillow lovingly-made by a girl who adored him. It is a snippet of an anecdote Bruce learned as a young boy from Rissie, who heard it from Belle (Dorcas).
Another stunning feature of the book is how the little map of the river and creek is used: at the beginning, there is just a line drawing that looks like a tree branch with twigs. As the stories progress, this bare branch blooms with an 1825 depiction of place names and location of Cornelius Hopkins' farm. Still living through much of the book, he was Elisha's father, born in Virginia during the Revolution, and spoke in a "Colonial Tongue." An 1860's version of the map shows how their creeks tie into the larger Kentucky and Virginia topography. Another shows the area in relation to southwest Virginia and General Burbridge's attack and retreat near Saltville. A final map reveals all the family homes, churches, narrow gauge railroad line, railroad under construction, dock and ferry on the Levisa Fork, logging camp, school, Old Prater Cemetery, Old Hopkins Burying Ground, Elisha Hopkins Cemetery, the grave of Zachariah Phillips, in sum, the world of Greasy Creek after the war and of "Spirits in the Field." The final map hints at the devastation brought by northern timber companies, the coal industry, deforestation, and the end of pre-war prosperity of a different kind.
Gone were the giant trees that were sacred to the Indians and gave cabins to the settlers, the yellow poplars that nurtured bees and their honey that Elisha had used for the whiskey that was his livelihood. "The stumps...were like huge flat gravestones covering the tombs of giants, but there was no honor to these markers, and the giants themselves were nearly forgotten." With "Bright Wings to Fly" Bruce Hopkins, an administrator with the school system of Pike County, has carried on the tradition of Dorcas and Rissie of not forgetting the family history. Hopkins demonstrates in both books the most effective combination of scholarship and memoir. The reader is enriched. When you finish "Bright Wings," you will want to explore Saltville, Pound Gap, Grundy, Pikeville, and Pike County. You will want to "cross over" into another era on the banks of Greasy Creek. "If that old place could talk, he thought, the stories it could tell." It has.

This book hid beneath a pile on my desk for a month. But recently, I uncovered it and began reading. Once I started, I couldn't put it down until I had finished.

This book is Bruce's second in what will be a trilogy on his family. I found this book to be even better than the first one. This book so captivated my attention that I no longer thought of it as merely a book by a local author. This is a serious book which has the qualities of a best-seller.

Bruce writes once again about Greasy Creek, which to me is an unlikely place. I always stumble on the name. But that's where Bruce's people lived, the "old ones," as he calls them. His family has lived for generations on Greasy Creek in Pike County, Kentucky, and Bruce writes about the real-life events that happened to his family there.

As a child, his grandmother recounted stories of the Civil War generation of his ancestors. Bruce admits that he didn't pay enough attention to those stories as she was telling them. But when the new Highway 460 was designed to run through the family cemetery, Bruce began digging into the past. He wanted to find out where in that cemetery his people were buried. Where were the ones whose grave markers had long disappeared?

That investigation led him to uncover historical documents that confirmed the stories his grandmother had told him. Those stories kept coming back into his memory as he conducted his research. He found that his grandmother had been faithfully transmitting to him the family history, and that led him to even more historical confirmations.

At some point most of us get interested in our genealogy, and enjoy filling in the names on our family tree. We are glad to have the names and maybe a few facts about those who have gone before us.

But Bruce didn't just find names, and he didn't just find stories. Somehow "story" seems too weak a word for the dramatic, heart-wrenching, life-celebrating accounts in this book. His vivid language makes these characters become far more than just a genealogy. They quickly became people that I found myself caring about as well.

There is an ebb and flow in this book between Bruce's contemporary search for his roots and the narration set in the Civil War era. It seems to me that this shift would be difficult to achieve, but Bruce seamlessly carries the reader from today to 1860 and back again.

I kept hearing Bruce and other local historians observe that the Civil War had a huge impact on Eastern Kentucky and Pikeville in particular, but I didn't understand how. I knew there were some skirmishes and even battles in the area, but I had no concept of the devastating impact of the war on local families until his vivid story unfolded for me.

Bruce Hopkins not only knows history; he can make history come alive. I found myself caring about the people in this book and not wanting it to end. I am still stunned that this was not a fictional account. These amazing events happened to real people in his family and, I suppose they represent similar stories that could be told about many families in Pike County.

I can honestly say that this is one of the best books I ever read, and I have read a lot of books. This is a well-crafted book. The narrative is convincing. The writing never seems forced. Mystery and suspense appear just enough to make the reader eager for more. I highly recommend it to you.

Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History is a great book. John Fiske said "Without genealogy, the study of history is lifeless." I believe that without history, the study of genealogy is meaningless. With this book, you can make your family history meaningful. From the forward: "Trust me. You are not alone. I felt exactly the same way you do. Names and dates on a genealogical chart were fun - for a while. Then I remember thinking, 'Is this all there is to genealogy? [...]' I was craving for something more than sterile facts." Sturdevant shows you how to make it all come to life.

The book has numerous examples, some published, some private collection materials, to help you see what you can do with your family's history. Even if you don't intend to get your stories published, there will probably be someone to follow you who will be overjoyed to read the detailed descriptions you can create with this book.

If you have a huge list of names and dates which have no real meaning, this is the book for you. It really will breathe new life into your genealogical research. I *highly* recommend Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History. I find it to be a very useful book, and an excellent reminder when my research stalls.

Kathy Sturdevant brings her expertise of social history to the world of family history and genealogy with humor, flair, and solid information. With clear examples and explanations of the many sources/resources available to family historians, this book bridges the often separated worlds of history and genealogy with a lively style and enjoyable wit. Tips on preserving and documenting family "artifacts," a meaty bibliography, photos (and how to "read" them), research pointers, thought-provoking ideas for research, helpful and accessible academic orientation. I took Kathy's course on the same topic (co-taught with Certified Genealogist Sharon DeBartolo Carmack)--the book demonstrates why Kathy is such a popular instructor at her institution. Reading the book is almost as good as taking the course; maybe better if you prefer to skip the required term paper. :-) On the other hand, you'll miss Sharon's infamous Halloween lecture at the local cemetery and the intriguing antique artifacts Kathy brings to class.

Bulkeley is the best High school in the beat!!!!!!!!
holla back

Of the many genealogical works on family ancestry, this surely ranks as one of the most thoroughly researched and well reasoned. The amount of time and effort in reviewing original source documents, their analysis and due weight given to the questions at hand are indeed impressive.

Excellent account of CSA partisan rangers and the yankees that chased them in western Virginia. If you like soldier stories, you will enjoy this book, filled with exploits and accounts of actions and their impacts on a local family.

By the Banks of the Holly: Notes and Letters from the Desk of Bernard Mollohan by Marie Mollohan. 2005 by iUniverse, 649pp., $36.95 softcover; 46.95 hardcover.

Marie Mollohan has done a marvelous job of distilling decades of central West Virginia history through her great-grandfather's desk. Her sharpest focus is on the history and key characters related to Webster County, especially in the years covering the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The genius of her use of the desk is that those records were but a microcosm of what everyone in the region experienced during those years. Bernard Mollohan himself must have been a known union loyalist to have become the county surveyor after the war. Such was an important position when only "loyal" citizens could even vote, and much land was being contested for various reasons. But Bernard's loyalties did not keep Marie from giving a fair account of the tensions experienced by so many. Her family, and neighbors were divided into all three sides, as well, during this period. Why do I say all "three" sides?

Marie captures the irony of there being the obvious Union and Confederate sides of the war, yet none were stationed in Webster County. There were no serious battles about which one would read in a national text. That is because a third "side" existed. They were most often known as "bushwhackers". They were not in either army, and were a law unto themselves. People throughout the region experienced loss of life, destruction of property and a general sort of, unofficial, martial law. In the name of protection "bushwhackers" preyed on others, even apart from professed loyalties at times. It became very personal and dangerous in this period, especially for the families of those who chose to serve in a regular army, and left loved ones with little protection. Maybe we could say that Marie has helped to visualize what Webster County's version of the movie "Cold Mountain" might be. There was an insurgency not unlike what we see today in Iraq, and some took advantage of the ill-defined political chaos. Marie captures the personal side of this from true of accounts of family and their friends in the period.

Marie's chapters on the Civil War (pp.121-460) and related endnotes (pp. 547-592, 615-632) are a treasury of information for those interested in this subject. She has corrected lots of misinformation and added new light to this subject of the Civil War in that region. Key characters are treated with balance and insight. Such names as Tuning, Chewning, Haymond, Spriggs and Connely are among the several cited as leading Guerillas. Incidents such as the burning of Sutton (county seat of Braxton County), Gardner's Store and the march on Addison are given in a detailed and interesting manner.

Webster County's hills and rivers were said to have been a natural funnel through which contraband people and goods would flow when Union forces controlled the main routes. Guerilla forces could more easily hold this ground between the counties along the Little Kanawha River, and Greenbrier County, a doorway to the Old Dominion. Guerillas and others could find a ready market for the horses and goods of their neighbors with one army or the other.

Of special interest should be some little-known material on how the Union's 36th Ohio came to deal with the known and hardened irregulars. The whole tension today of legal rights for "terrorists" was a problem for Union troops. They dealt with people who were repeat offenders in murder, theft and destruction. The 36th Ohio evolved to a position of "take no prisoners" (not meaning "parole"), and all of this long before the national policy had hardened enough toward insurgency to be comfortable with the destruction of Sheridan and Sherman in 1864. There were what many would call "war crimes" today as Union forces fought in Guerilla fashion. One group, called "Snake Hunters", battled with such groups as the Moccasin Rangers. But, for the details, you must read it yourself.

This brings me to the point of where only a few regrets might be noted about the work.
The title doesn't seem to catch the gist of the content for a reader like myself. Because this is a history, done through a family lens, the fact they lived around the Holly River makes the connection to the Holly River seem right. To me, this is a history book, uniquely capable of being told through real people and their real experiences. The title, to me, just seems to miss the mark. But I have no alternative to suggest. It definitely needs to be cross classified as Civil War somehow. The final editing might leave the English major a little unsettled at the number of simple mistakes of punctuation, or subject and verb agreement. I also found myself wanting a better map to keep track of the references to the various rivers and their branches. That would have smoothed my enjoyment of an otherwise well written, well told story of a heroic people, and area, in tough times. It is a story of the founding of Webster County and the state of West Virginia (even our country) through the mysteries of a desk that intrigued a girl who delivered on a promise to tell this story.

Bill Dollarhide's "The Census Book" is the best reference book on the subject among several that have been issued in the same time frame. While I respect Loretto Szucs'/Matthew Wright's excellent book and the detailed book by Kathleen Hinchley, this one is concise, has detailed dates and references, and is the one I return to again and again, Bravo, Bill! Great work!

This is a great book! It is terrific to have the CD available too.

As Continental forces and Virginia militia units were engaged in winning independence, American quartermasters and provisioners struggled to provide these units with all the necessities of life, from meals and guns to meat, fodder for horses, the horses themselves, firewood, and every other type of material. Much of this was requisitioned from the civilian population and certificates were issued payable in either continental or state funds, depending on the units supplied, upon presentation to court authorities. Thousands of these certificates issued to Virginians were duly entered by the courts, and they provide a fascinating insight into the period of the Revolution. These "Publick" Claims booklets contain interesting and useful information about the contributions of ordinary people to the Revolutionary War. They provide some details of people's service in the militia or as guards for prisoners of war; they indicate where some bodies of troops were at particular times; and they identify providers of horses, wagons, cattle, grain, or other supplies. Much of the information in these booklets cannot be found anywhere else, which makes the surviving records particularly valuable. Also remarkable is the fact that records survived from virtually every county in the state at that time with the exception of the newly formed Kentucky counties. This makes the collection even more valuable in covering areas which heretofore in this time period have suffered from a lack of personal data. The "Virginia Publick Claims" are published by counties. In addition to a faithful transcription by Janice Luck Abercrombie and the late Richard Slatten, a complete index is provided for each county booklet. This series is an extremely important genealogical tool for searchers in Revolutionary-era materials.

Washington Post reporter T.R. Reid takes a candid look at Washington personalities and politics, revealing the motives and strategies, the cooperation and rivalry, the honesty and the deceit behind a seemingly minor piece of legislation. He traces the course of S.790-the Inland Waterways Bill-from its inception to its eventual passage, a process with as many twists and subplots as a novel, and with characters just as vivid.

In congressional Odyssey: the Saga of a Senate bill you will discover:

-a cast of main characters including Jimmy Carer, Edward Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Hamilton Jordan, Howard Baker, Tip O'Neill, Russell Long, and other key political figures

-a covert alliance between the railroad lobby and environmentalists, marked by a money-laundering scheme

-the White House in-fighting triggered by the bill, leading to the ouster of Brock Adams during President Cater's cabinet shakeup

-Carter's problems with the congressional leadership, exacerbated by his suppport of the Inland Waterways Bill authored by Republican Senator Pete Domenici

-"know-who" lawyers, who get things done through their connections rather than their legal abilities

-the Alton, Illinois, Lock and Dam 26 project that earned Senator Proxmire's first "Golden Fleece Award" for wasting tax dollars

-the thoughts and feelings of the dozens of central personalities who talked with suprising frankness to T.R. Reid..."