Week 39: Society Journal or Quarterly. Share with us your favorite genealogy society journal or quarterly publication. How long have you been reading it? Which group publishes it? Why is this publication one of your favorites? How has is helped you research your family history?
This is another one of those situations where I could never choose just one. I always enjoy a good case history and someone else's success! Their journey is often helpful regarding methodology and possible obscure sources.
I have been receiving The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, since the mid 1990's. I have considerable New England heritage and there have been articles published during that time of subscription that dealt directly with one of my families, or perhaps illuminated a location where they lived. If you are a member of NEHGS, the back issues of the Register are all online and searchable from their main search engine using the advanced search at American Ancestors.
I have also been a subscriber of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly - for probably almost as many years. There is a searchable index on their website (for members of NGS) for articles in the Quarterly since 1912, as well as pdf copies of each Quarterly since 1982. NGSQ publishes special issues from time to time - my two favorites were Evidence, Volume 87, No. 3, September 1999, with the highlighted article Working with Historical Evidence: Genealogical Principles and Standards", by Elizabeth Shown Mills, and
Jefferson-Hemings, Volume 89, No. 3, September 2001, containing the article, "Sally Hemings's Children: a Genealogical Analysis of the Evidence" by Helen F. M. Leary. I've had the joy of sitting in classrooms with both of these ladies at IGHR (Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research), Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama.
On a more personal level and directly related to research of one of my husband's families is the Frey Family Association Journal, published by the Heinrich Frey Family Association. The surname is found most often now as Frye or Fry. Jon Frye has been the editor of the Journal since July of 1992. It has been published at least twice a year, although some years there were quarterly issues; I have a copy of every issue. The articles are of course, pertinent only to the immigrant, Heinrich Frey and his descendants, but are of the highest quality compared to other family association journals I've read. Many errors in past research have been revealed, as well as new branches of the family discovered. Anyone who researches this family would find the Journal a necessity to sort out the many faulty family trees published online [so many Frey/Frye/Fry gentlemen with the same given names have been confused], as well as understand some of the imaginative early "traditions" about Heinrich Frey that weren't quite true. My own research of my husband's Fry lineage can be found here - many of the references in the narratives will be from this publication.
Happy reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment