HelPeR - BYU Idaho Special Collections and Family History

On the Bookshelf
The Sleuth Book for Genealogists
By Emily Anne Croom; 2000;
Reprinted 2008 by GPC;
8.5x11; 290 pp; softbound;
Order from the publisher
at: Genealogical Publishing
Company, 3600 Clipper Mill
Road, Suite 260, Baltimore,
MD 21211; or www.genealogical.com;
GPC1221; ISBN:
9780806317878; $34.95 plus
$4.00 p&h.
What do you do when you hit the proverbial brick
wall Try gleaning advice from literary sleuths like
Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot.
That’s what expert genealogist Emily Croom helps
you do in The Sleuth Book for Genealogists, which
blends literary methods of deduction with genealogical
expertise.
Using the sleuths’ acknowledged expertise in the
deduction arts, The Sleuth Book will invigorate your
genealogical research, helping you to
• Determine your research goal
• Organize what you know
• Practice “cluster genealogy” research
• Document your research
• Decide whether you’ve answered your research
questions.
Case studies and research examples throughout
the book—including case studies of an Illinois Civil
War Veteran, a former Mississippi slave, and a Tennessee
farm wife, among others—illustrate genealogical
sleuths in action, taking you step by step through
the process of solving frustrating research problems.
Appendixes include an introduction to genealogy
fundamentals and a practical, detailed guide to citing
your sources.
The Beginner’s Guide to Using Tax Lists
By Cornelius Carroll; 1996;
Reprinted 2002; 8.5x11; 64
pp; softbound. Order from
the publisher at: Clearfield
Company, Inc., 3600 Clipper
Mill Road, Suite 260, Baltimore,
MD 21211; or www.
genealogical.com; CF9201;
ISBN: 9780806347073; $17.50
plus $4.00 p&h.
Tax lists are one of our
most valuable, if often neglected, sources of genealogical
information. Tax lists can refer to personal
property tax lists, tithables, poll lists, land tax lists,
and rent rolls. They usually divulge the names of
heads of households and other males aged 16 or over,
as well as valuations of slaves, cattle, horses, other
types of personal property, land taxes, and notes of
interest. They can be used not only to trace a family’s
migration and its taxable property, but also to
prove parentage when no other records are available.
Tax lists place individuals in a particular place at a
particular time and indicate the amount and type
of property owned. They may also indicate the relationship
of individuals in a household and their
approximate ages.
The Beginner’s Guide to Using Tax Lists is Cornelius
Carroll’s primer for making the best genealogical usage
of tax lists. At the outset the author differentiates
between tax lists, quit rents, tithables, militia lists,
censuses, and similar records and the laws that applied
to them. Then, by focusing on the tax lists of
Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee,
he demonstrates how tax lists can be used for determining
parentage, birth and death dates, indentured
servitude, slavery, manumission, and racial status.
They can be used, in conjunction with other records
to help determine the parentage of a female, the date
of a marriage, migration routes, and the accuracy
of family traditions. Mr. Carroll has also included a
list of dates of county formation for the four states
referred to above and a number of sample tax lists
in order to expose researchers to the legal and other
factors affecting the ages and classes of people who
were taxable at any given time.
A Pocket Guide for Genealogists—
Second Edition
By Judy Jacobson; 2003; Reprinted
2007; 5.5x8.75; 281
pp; softbound. Order from
the publisher at: Clearfield
Company, Inc., 3600 Clipper
Mill Road, Suite 260, Baltimore,
MD 21211; or www.
genealogical.com; CF9411;
ISBN: 9780806352190; $29.95
plus $4.00 p&h.
Unlike a textbook or howto
book, which genealogists
should consult prior to venturing
upon a research trip, A Field Guide for Genealogists,
by Judy Jacobson, is the perfect book to take with
you once you have embarked. Consider the following
scenarios: (1) You’re doing research in a courthouse
when you come across a term in a will that you don’t
understand; (2) You run across an old photograph
of people who are supposed to be your ancestors,
Ja n ua ry/Fe b r u a r y 2009 Ev e r t o n’s Ge n e a l o g i c a l He l p e r © 119