Janet Wahlberg
A wonderful resource that you may not know about is At A Glance. These are laminated folders of information on many topics. Each offers a summary of the topic that is contained in the folder. Then there is a total of 4 pages of information on the topic.
For example, Revolutionary War Genealogy Research. It is arranged with a table of contents, a section titled Quick Facts and then is divided into several sections. Finding a Revolutionary War Soldier is the first and offers the summary. It goes on to offer Major Record Sources such as DAR and SAR Records, Pension records and Compiled Military Service Records. Then it moves on to Other Records Sources such as Muster Rolls, Settled Accounts, Bounty Land Records, Manuscript Collections, Loyalist Records and Federal Census Returns. The final section is a list of additional online resources.
The value in these folders is that it gives you brief and compact overview on how to research a project or to learn a genealogy skill. There are several groups of topics: States, Countries, DNA, Family Search, Ancestry, Citations, Lineage Societies, Wars (Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and the Civil War), Ethnic Groups, Immigration, Cemetery Records, Court Records, and other topics. We have a fairly large collection at the Hall House Research Library.
These brief overviews of topics is a great way to get started on a new area of research or to learn a new skill without purchasing a stack of books that may not actually be that much help.
If you want to take a look at this resource, come to the Open House on Wednesday August 30th from 4PM t0 8PM. It is free and there will be research assistants there to help.
To read Janet Walberg’s previous genealogy columns or to delve deeper into her writings and insights for searching out and recording your own family’s genealogy, please go to jamestowngazette.com and visit Janet’s own web page.
