Ancestry Magazine

Notices of new genealogical books

Dutch Immigrant Memoirs and Related Writings, Revised edition
Originally published in two volumes in 1955. Selected and arranged by Henry S. Lucas in a combined edition, 1997. Wil liam B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 255 Jefferson Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503; phone: 1-800-253-7521. xviii, 925 pages. Index. Softcover. $45.00 plus s/h.

This collection of nineteenth-century travel accounts and reflections of Dutch immigrant pioneers is arranged geographically. More than half of the documents concern the Holland colony in Michigan; settlements in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas receive treatment; and single essays appear on colonies in New York, Virginia, Colorado, and Kansas. The 114 selected documents portray the first sixty years of the Dutch settlements, 1846 to 1907, with major emphasis on the pioneers and the founding of the colonies. Translations for non-English essays are included. Common themes are the ocean voyage and inland journey over the Erie Canal and Great Lakes, pioneer hardships, leadership, and tributes to God for providential care. Three documents on Dutch Roman Catholic immigration to the Fox River valley of Wisconsin acknowledge that Catholics comprised nearly one-fifth of the nineteenth-century Dutch immigration to North America. The introduction to the revised edition by Robert P. Swierenga provides insight into Lucas’s selection of material.

Family History Logbook and Reaching Back
By Reinhard Klein, 1996; by Alice Chapin, 1997

Both published by Betterway Books, F&W Publications, 1507 Dana Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45207; phone: 1-800-289-0963. 221 and 150 pages, respectively. Bibliography in Logbook. Softcover. Logbook $16.99; Reaching Back $14.99 plus $3.50 s/h first book, $1.50 each additional.

Creating an organized story for future generations is the goal of both these books. Each provides topics for recording personal information. Reaching Back encourages you to gather information from relatives. Interview tips are followed by 145 pages of questions with space to enter answers or place photographs. The Family History Logboo k is more stylized: every two pages is assigned a year, 1900–1995. The facing pages are divided into three categories. The “Historical Context” section details national events and pop-culture happenings, to kindle your personal recollections of these times. “Family Milestones” asks you to document meaningful family events, while the “Catalog of Sources” section is for citing your references.

Railway Ancestors: A Guide to the Staff Records of the Railway Companies of England and Wales 1822—1947
By David T. Hawkings

Published by Alan Sutton Publishing, Ltd. in association with the Public Record Office,

Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU, England. 1995. xviii, 509 pages. Appendixes, bibliography, illustrations, indexes, photographs, tables. Hardcover. $44.95 plus s/h.

“Almost every family tree will have in one of its branches a railway employee,” is the opening sentence on the jacket flap of Railway Ancestors. Given the high number of Americans with English and Welsh ancestry, this assertion is worthy of note. The 988 names of railway companies in appendix 1 (which includes cross-references) suggest that the railways did engage a large percentage of the labor force in England and Wales. This book brings together details of all known staff records for English and Welsh railway companies, as well as Scottish railways that crossed the border into England. Appendix 2 lists all railways which ran in each historic county. Other appendixes show location of staff registers, Railway Joint Committees holding surviving records, staff records for the Railway Clearing House, employees’ trades and occupations, and events in railway history. The three hundred pages of appendixes are followed by two name indexes: personal and commercial (railway companies, stations, and institutions). The text is illustrated with record reproductions, diagrams of accidents, and photographs of employees and stations. A surprising number of women are named i n the records, which include staff registers and histories, payroll books, sickness and accident reports, management meeting notes, trades union appeals, and railway magazines and newspapers.

Genealogical Research in Ohio
By Kip Sperry

Published by Genealogical Publishing Company, 1001 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD 21202-3897; phone: 1-800-296-6687. 1997. xii, 303 pages. Bibliography, index, maps. $28.50 plus $3.50 s/h.

A timetable of events in Ohio history begins this book, which is designed for quick reference and bibliographic completeness. Succinct discussions of various record sources, such as military, marriage, and taxes, include titles of published works or microfilmed collections to aid the researcher. Ohio archives and libraries with significant genealogy collections are described, along with guides for accessing their holdings. Almost a third of the book is devoted to addresses in and out of Ohio. A comprehensive bibliography comprises another third, with topics ranging from African American Sources to Periodicals and Newspapers. Eighteen Ohio maps are included, and an index ties it all together.

Settlers of Maryland, 1766–1783
By Peter Wilson Coldham

Published by Genealogical Publishing Company, 1001 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD 21202-3897; phone: 1-800-296-6687. 1996. 204 pages. Indexed. Hardcover. $25.00 plus $3.50 s/h.

Identifying Maryland immigrants through the land they acquired began with Early Settlers of Maryland. An Index of Names of Immigrants Compiled from Records of Land Patents, 1633–1689, in the Hall of Records by Gust Skordas. GPC’s 1995 reprint of this work introduced the 1996 publication of Mr. Coldham’s five volumes: 1679–1700, 1701–1730, 1731–1750, 1751–1765, and 1766–1783. The latter ends the colonial period and, as does each volume, contains an alphabetical list (by grantee name) of 4,500 grants iss ued in Maryland from 1766 to the end of the Revolutionary War. Including Skordas’s index, the series identifies more than 50,000 grantees. Entries are arranged by family name, county, name of tract, acreage, and date, and include a reference to original source(s).

The First Passage: Blacks in the Americas 1502–1617 
By Colin A. Palmer

Published by Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. 1995. 126 pages. Bibliography, glossary, illustrations, index, maps. Hardcover. $17.95 plus s/h.

The search for African American roots requires insight into the complex history of this people. The First Passage is the inaugural volume in The Young Oxford History of African Americans. The series will bring readers through 1970. Volumes 2, 3, and 4 chronicle the condition of slaves and free blacks in North America before 1860 (1617–1776, 1776–1804, and 1804–1860); volumes 5 and 6 continue the journey through 1900 (1860–1880 and 1880–1900). There are eleven volumes in all, including a supplement and index. Volume 1 explores the society, culture, politics, and economics in ancient and medieval Africa, then discusses the enslavement of African people. Palmer traces the deadly Atlantic crossing and describes the brutal physical conditions and intense psychological adjustment of this forced relocation. The story focuses, however, on the ability of a people to endure and survive despite harsh and unrelenting oppression.

Sandra Hargreaves Luebking is a genealogical and historical researcher. She is the editor of Forum, the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ quarterly magazine, and coeditor of The Archives: A Guide to the National Archives Field Branches and the revised edition of The Source.