Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Five Reference Books for Beginning Genealogy Researchers

I suspect we will see very different lists in response to tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music) is:

1.  What five reference books (and only five) would you recommend to a beginning genealogy researcher to have on the bookshelf?

2.  Share your list of five books in your own blog post or in a Facebook, SubStack, BlueSky, or other social media post.  Leave a link to your post on this blog post to help us find your post.

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this SNGF topic.

I have a significantly different list than Randy's.  Mine is based on research in the United States of America specifically, which is where most of our blogging audience is, as far as I know.

1.  I'll agree with Randy on Val D. Greenwood's The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy (4th edition).  Quoting Randy, "Arguably the best book ever written on American genealogy, it instructs the researcher in the timeless principles of genealogical research, while identifying the most current classes of records and research tools."  This will give a beginning researcher a solid foundation of research skills for American research.

And now I will deviate from Randy and choose four entirely different books than he did.  While I agree that court and land research are important for genealogy, they're not the first topics I would emphasize for a beginner.

2.  Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790–1920, William Thorndale and William Dollarhide.  The census is the starting point for most American research, and this book not only explains the census but illustrates changes in jurisdictions over ten-year increments.  It still provides a solid foundation in understanding the U.S. census.  If researchers don't understand the census and how to use the information it provides, I have learned they generally don't get far in their research.

3.  International Vital Records Handbook, 7th Edition, Thomas Jay Kemp.  This book will have out-of-date information (similar to the next entry) because it was published in 2017.  But vital records are probably the most important records specific to individuals, and this reference book explains so much about them.  Understanding the background of vitals, when they started in different areas, and jurisdictions are critical to finding and using them.  Having the names of administrative offices, which this book supplies, means you can search for them online and see if they have Web sites where you can order online, or learn if addresses and phone numbers have been updated.

4.  Red Book:  American State, County & Town Sources, Third Edition, Alice Eichholz, Ph.D.  I hesitated about this choice primarily because the last print edition was published in 2004, making a significant amount of the details in it out of date, but the basic information is mostly still valid.  I decided to include it because the information in it is important and because Randy said books.  It is possible to use the references in the book and then search online for Web sites, current addresses and phone numbers, etc.  When you don't know what resources are available, the Red Book can point you in good directions.  At one point Ancestry.com had the information in the book available on its site, but I don't know if that is the case anymore.

5.  The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition, University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff.  Some may call it heresy, but I still rely on CMoS for my style information.  There is nothing I have found in genealogical research that cannot be well cited by using this book, and it is useful in other contexts as well.

And it's possible to find used copies of most of these (maybe not so many of CMoS 18) at good prices.