The Family Tree Sourcebook: Your Essential Directory of American County and Town Records is a recent addition to our genealogy club library. It’s shelved in the “Research” section. (Clicking on the cover image at left takes you to Amazon where you can “Look Inside.”)

The book has fifty chapters, one for each state, plus supplementary material. It’s edited by the editors of Family Tree Magazine and is similar to The Family Tree Guidebook to Europe which we also acquired recently. Different authors contribute different chapters. (David Fryxell, our February speaker, covers the West Coast, Arizona, and New Mexico.)  Each chapter has research tips, a map, and an overview of state history and genealogical records. The meat of each chapter is lists of specific genealogical resources: addresses for libraries and historical societies, titles of books, websites for online resources, and county-level listings of courthouses and their holdings.  The book, published in 2010, runs to over 750 pages and is very well done.

Sorry, I have to go now. I just learned this week that one of my GGGFs was probably born in Maine where I’ve never done research before. I have to read Maureen Taylor’s chapter on it in The Family Tree Sourcebook. Thanks to Frances Rubino for recommending this book for our library.