Under the guidance and in-depth research work of Eric G. Grundset, Director of Library Publications, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is publishing a series of guides related to Revolutionary War research in various states.  The DAR website states this “provides detailed information on the availability of manuscript and archival material that exists for the state for the period of the Revolutionary War along with listings of historical and genealogical studies that have been published and which supplement the original sources. It is the most extensive gathering of such information ever published, and researchers will find it an essential resource with which to identify materials and studies located in many scattered libraries and archives.” These books are several hundred pages long, have maps, and are indexed. Each is available in print or a PDF edition.

The already published volumes are on New York, South Carolina, Georgia, Rhode Island, Virginia (includes West Virginia, Kentucky and the Old Northwest), Massachusetts/Maine, and North Carolina. The volume for Connecticut, the eighth book in the series, will be available any day. If you are interested in this or others please check the DAR Store’s webpage at: dar.org/national-society/about-dar/dar-publications.

The Georgia printed volume is presently out of print and will likely be reprinted in a couple of months. Next up is the book for Pennsylvania, the ninth in the series. This will be followed in the next year or so by the remaining states: New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and New Hampshire/Vermont.

This morning I gave a talk in Wisconsin and a question was asked that led me to talking about the Fopydo. You read that correctly, I didn’t make up the word or misspell it. According to the company’s website, it is an abbreviation of “photo-copy documents.”

It’s a simple tool that comes folded flat, but when assembled provides an excellent and cheap way to steady your camera when taking pictures of documents, pages from a book, or of a family photo. It really helps if you have any issues holding your cell phone perfectly still to take such pictures.

This is a link to more info on the FopyDo http://fopydo.com/. I learned about these from Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi’s List. I ordered mine from Amazon.

When is the last time you checked the FamilySearch’s Family History Research Wiki for your ancestral cities, counties, states, provinces, and countries? Many are continually being updated. How about the pages about genealogy topics such as census, tax lists and others?

One page that has been updated and has added content is Hanover Military Records. It’s a really good page and makes me wish I had Hanover ancestry.

Not all pages are as comprehensive as this one, but using this in conjunction with Cyndi’s List for ancestral locations really broadens your knowledge and ability to find history and records for your family.

Please join me next week in Hudson, Wisconsin as I present “Controlling Chaos: Organizing Your Genealogical Materials” at the Hudson Area Public Library. Thursday, February 9 at 10:30 a.m. Free, but registration required. www.hudsonpubliclibrary.org/

The presentation is accompanied by a five page handout.

Genealogical institutes are great places for week-long in-depth learning. The Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) is one place for that. Students sign up for one course that takes place from Monday through Friday. GRIP offers two different weeks in the summer and each offers classes on many topics and geographic areas.  Air conditioned classrooms, cafeteria, and dorm rooms that are just steps from each other. Once you attend GRIP, you will return! The learning, the camaraderie, eating meals together, and being around others for a whole week of talking genealogy is rewarding.

The courses for the 2017 edition of GRIP may be found here.

I am the coordinator and one of the instructors for Intermediate Genealogy: Tools for Digging Deeper. Joining me as instructors are Debbie Mieszala, CG, Melissa A. Johnson, CG, and Karen Mauer Jones, CG, FGBS. This course takes place during the second week of GRIP, July 16-21.  This course offers an array of sessions, a group homework project that teaches several important research values, and the opportunity to have your  personal research issue discussed in class. That discussion leads to many suggestions for solving the problem.

The 2017 registration dates are:
Wednesday, February 22, 2017, for courses held June 25-30, 2017
Wednesday, March 8, 2017, for courses held July 16-21, 2017

The listing of the six courses in each week (total of twelve) can be seen here and by clicking on the course name you will see details of all eighteen sessions in each course (also available by hovering over the “Courses” tab). GRIP offers courses for genealogists of all levels of experience and knowledge.

Put those registration dates on your calendar right now!

Budget and space dictate my book buying binges. It’s so tough to walk away from genealogy and history books. I see titles about the WPA, railroads, women’s history, and others but I am tormented. My winter 2016-17Minnesota History magazine arrived and it tells of three new railroad books:

• The Great Northern Railway Through Time (Dale Peterka, Arcadia Publishing, 2016)
• John H. Burdakin: Railroader (Don Hofsommer, Michigan State University Press, 2016) [I would love a whole library of books and articles by Hofsommer!]
• Twelve Twenty-Five: The Life and Times of a Steam Locomotive (Kevin P. Keefe, Michigan State University Press, 2016)

Maybe I will go buy a lottery ticket so I can win and buy more books? I wonder what my children will say?