HelPeR - BYU Idaho Special Collections and Family History

the Dictionary of American Biography (DAB), published
in 20 volumes (1928-85); and the American
National Biography (1999, 2002) in 24 volumes, the
successor to the DAB, which is available by subscription
online. Some compilations should be
used with caution, such as Virkus’ Compendium
of American Genealogy (1925), and Appleton’s Cyclopædia
of American Biography, an early work in
seven volumes (1887-1901) that contains some fictitious
people.
• Specialized directories. These are publications
about a specific ethnic group (the African American
National Biography Project, or Slovakia and the
Slovaks—A concise encyclopedia), a particular group
(Who’s Who of American Women, or the Biographical
Directory of the United States Congress), a university
(Sibley’s Harvard Graduates), or an ethnic group
(Rosholt, Ole Goes To War, Men from Norway Who
Fought in America’s Civil War).
• Occupational directories. These may be just a vita
giving an educational outline and a few biographical
facts, or they may contain details of an individual’s
schooling, apprenticeship, honors, and
career. Examples are: Heitman, Historical Register
and Dictionary of the United States Army, which
lists 60,000 commissioned officers from 1789 to
1903: or Norlie, Who’s Who Among Pastors in all the
Norwegian Lutheran Synods of America, 1843-1927; or
Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians; or the
Dictionary of Literary Biography; or the Biographical
Dictionary of American Science; or A Biographical
Dictionary of Railway Engineers. These can lead to
further research on a subject or a company, such
as the History of the Illinois Central Railroad Company
and Representative Employees.
• Local histories. If your ancestor was an early settler
in a town or county, or a politician, doctor,
dentist, lawyer, mortician, minister, banker, merchant,
lawman, or newspaper editor, he will be
included in these histories. Some, which are commonly
known as “mug books,” were speculative
publications that contain profiles supplied by the
subjects themselves.
• Biographical dictionaries. These one or two-volume
compilations contain short summaries that
are usually arranged alphabetically. Who Was Who
in America from Marquis, which is indexed in the
BGMI, has 122,000 entries of deceased individuals
who originally appeared in the current volumes
A typical local history, History of Buffalo
and Erie Co. [NY] with illustrations 1620-
1884, from the editor’s collection.
of Who’s Who in America. Some “vanity publications”
that expected individuals to order a copy
in order to be listed have titles such as “Roll of
Honor of…”, or “Outstanding Young Men of…”,
or “Personalities of…” They are not included in
standard indexes.
• Individual and group biographies. About 30,000
book-length biographies or autobiographies have
been published, many of which are of regional interest.
Group biographies, such as Strachey’s Eminent
Victorians (1918), interweave individual lives
and show how they interacted with each other
and with society. Biographical Books, 1876-1949 and
1950-1980 by the R. R. Bowker Company list U.S.-
published biographies.
• State and regional indexes. Many state libraries
and archives have created name indexes to
biographical sketches in their collections, such as
the card file “Wisconsin Biography Index” maintained
at the Wisconsin Historical Society, the
four-volume Genealogical Index of the Newberry Library,
or the 26-volume Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania
Biography.
Lesser-known types of biographical material are:
confessions written by persons sentenced to death;
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