Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Tuesday's Tip: Scour the Local Gen. Society Publications


It may take some time, especially if there is not an index available, but the local Genealogical Society publications contain a wealth of information - some of which may cause you to do a happy dance.

During our recent visit to the Allen County Public Library, we spent some time reading the regional genealogical publications in search of the tidbits that will help fill in some family puzzles.  One collection was the Wilkes Genealogical Society Bulletin (Wilkes Co. NC). The society was established in 1967, and the twenty-eight page WGS Bulletin is published four times per year.

One of the publications contained the
 WGS Bulletin Subject Index By Keyword.

It was in this index that I found:
 
 
From there I was able to pull the volume it referred to and view the actual land record of our ancestor, John Underwood, which is shown in the previous post.

The Wilkes Genealogical Society has indexes to its Bulletins available online at:
http://www.wilkesgensoc.org/Materials.htm

The local society publications contain gems of information that you may not easily find elsewhere and are definately worth the time to peruse.  But a word of warning: like historical newspapers, they can be addicting to read.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Don't you just love the Allen County Public Library!? I feel so blessed to have that resource literally with in 2 miles of my house. I hope you had fun!

TCasteel said...

You are lucky! We drove 10 hours and spent a week at the B&B that is just a block away so I could research.

Michelle Goodrum said...

I love genealogical publications. Whenever I am in the Denver area (usually 2 or 3 times a year), I stop in at either the Denver Public Library or the Carnegie Branch Library in Boulder and pour through the old Boulder Genealogical Society Quarerlies. I have a sheet where I keep track of which ones I've gone through already. I've learned more about my ancestors from the quarterlies than anything else. Plus they cite their sources so I can go look up the original and get the rest of the story!