Archive for the ‘Recommended’ Category

This compilation of maps includes the 102 Illinois counties as they were in 1876. Also included are city maps for Chicago and Springfield and a detailed railroad map documenting track routes running throughout the state. The names of many landowners are listed on the maps, making this a great tool for locating families who were landowners during this time.  Township and range numbers are also provided for most of the maps. These numbers are extremely important when you have a land record that lists the legal description of a particular township and range within a county. Continue Reading

Has an ancestor fallen out of your family tree with no explanation of where the person landed? Oftentimes in genealogy we come across an ancestor who simply vanishes, or one who abruptly moves to an area with no other family connections, leaving us to wonder, “What happened?”

This book helps us put history into our family tree with the use of chronological time lines. Adding historical events to our family stories can give us ideas about why some ancestors vanished or moved to a location far from family and friends. Continue Reading

Genealogy is not just about gathering family photos and vital records and making scrapbooks. Genealogy is also about visiting old cemeteries to locate the final resting places of our ancestors.

But sometimes we find that those final resting places are sadly overgrown, unattended, and neglected cemeteries. Over the years the tombstones have become hard to read since no one has taken preventive measures to help preserve the history of those buried within the gates. And that is what this book is all about!  A Graveyard Preservation Primer explains the how-to Continue Reading

People and scenery of the river are frozen in time in dramatic photographs. Travel down the river with fishermen, tugboat captains, animals, and birds.

See a bald eagle in midair holding the fish he just snatched from the icy waters. Feel the rhythm of river life as you view the tugboat captains and fishermen at work. Enjoy the breathtaking beauty of a majestic oak tree silhouetted against the sunset.

Enjoy this book in the Hayner Public Library District Genealogy & Local History Library.

IR333.9162 ZAL

“Traveling free” is one of the kinder ways that “hobos” were described. During the Depression in the United States, most of these people were men who had lost their jobs. They were looking for work—any work they could find—anywhere. Occasionally whole families traveled together. With no transportation, the fastest way to get to the next town was by rail.  And so they “rode the rails”—grabbing hold and climbing on board as the train was starting, sneaking into empty train cars, riding on top of the cars, or even holding on between cars. Transients Continue Reading

Controversial, disturbing, and sad are the words that come to mind to describe the history documented within the pages of this book. Author James Loewen has done a remarkable job of recording one of America’s best-kept secrets, the truth about Sundown Towns in America. By using firsthand accounts backed up with historical facts, the author weaves a powerful and compelling story documenting how racism and segregation have affected hundreds of towns and their inhabitants across the Continue Reading

World War II Order of Battle describes every Army Ground Combat Unit, Battalion to Division, from 1939–1946. Army unit organization in World War II is thoroughly explained. The author lists the title and type of each unit. He lists the weapons used by each unit and includes images of unit insignia. He traces the movement of each unit in its overseas campaigns and gives each unit’s August 1945 location at the end of the war, if applicable.

Citizen soldiers in World War II served either in the Regular Army, the National Guard, or the Reserves. Continue Reading

This book will be of most use to family researchers who are comfortable using a computer to search the Internet for connections to their family tree. Each chapter is specific to a geographical location and is packed full of website addresses, as well as written instructions on successful searching in a specific area. Author Anne Hart has done a fantastic job of putting so much information into one book and making it all come together so well. A valuable tool for anyone with Continue Reading

This is a small book packed full of genealogical nuggets that have been compiled from reliable Kentucky records with various sources. The information listed in the Kentucky Pioneer and Court Records was collected from sources such as courthouse and church registers, cemeteries, and old family Bibles. Many of the entries date back to the early 1800s. Marriages, births, deaths, and wills are among the many diverse records listed in this collection of data about old Kentucky families.  A large Continue Reading

Meet eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, sleuth extraordinaire, who has a penchant for chemistry; especially the concocting of poisons, which she doesn’t mind using on her sisters. She lives on an old English country estate with her widowed father and two older sisters, a cook, and a gardener; her mother died in a mountain-climbing accident in Tibet when Flavia was very young. The family is lost in their own endeavors, which leaves time for brilliant Flavia to create her world of chemistry experiments and Continue Reading