Issue 24.10
Ancestry.com announced several new products recently. Two that are available now is the online versions of The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy and Red Book: American State, County and Town Sources.
These two (printed) books have been available for years and have become standard reference books for thousands of genealogists. The books are thick, packed with material, and expensive.
Ancestry.com recently sold its book publishing business to Turner Publishing. However, it appears that Ancestry.com retained rights to publish at least some of the materials.
Ancestry.com now offers online versions of these two books in a wiki format. These two online offerings presently contain every word of the latest versions of those books. Unlike the paper versions, the new online versions are searchable by every word. Even better, these previously-expensive books are now available online free of charge.
This wiki features a “living version” of the company’s two largest reference books. These books, which are exhaustive guides to American genealogy, will now be made available for the family history community to update, expand on and even add to, making it a go-to resource for guidance and information. In other words, you and everyone else can contribute new or updated information to these books. (There will be a review process before new information becomes visible to others.)
The beta version of the Ancestry.com Wiki is available NOW at no charge at www.ancestry.com/wiki.
Red Book is designed to help a family historian learn where to find information about their ancestors by taking an approach focused on localities. It is an expansive guide to the most useful resources in each of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia.
Major highlights of the content are the county resources published in table format for each state. Information in these tables often include county name, when the county was formed, which counties the new county was created from, and dates for when each county started recording information such as birth, marriage, and death records or land, probate and court records. Each state also has a county, town, or parish map.
Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.