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just curious , do you mean actual books written about your family lines/ancestors or people?
or do you just mean records?
and what do you mean exactly by manuscripts? just references made to someone in your family or an entire book/manuscripts either compiled by them or about them?
either way, you seem to be lucky if you've been able to actually go to the library of congress and research your family, especially that many times in your life
I wish we could all do that.
All of my family records are located at our New Mexico home and I am located at our Texas farm so I have few details here with me but I do recall that I have at least one actual typed manuscript of my father's family that was given to me by the nephew of the author. The story is that I had once purchased a piece of Texas property from this nephew not knowing then of the family connections. While we were communicating over other issues regarding the property, he had casually mentioned that his grandmother had been my surname. He also mentioned her family was addressed in a manuscript that had been prepared by an aunt of his. When he told me the name of his aunt, I recognized it from my research as the author of much of the source data in various materials I had reviewed. Surprisingly, the nephew graciously mailed his aunt's entire manuscript to me! I also have copies of several other original manuscripts that had been recorded with the Library of Congress (LOC). These however are all photocopies.
As far as published books, again I don't have my records and books in front of me but I discovered several books closely addressing my ancestral families in the LOC of which my own family was totally unaware. Some of these books I was actually able to track down and obtain copies of. One of my pride and joys is an 1844 edition of Memoirs of Elder Jesse Mercer, a cousin to my father. I keep that book in a safe as it is extremely rare in its original edition.
A few of my books are signed by the authors but most of the authors are now deceased. An older book on my dad's surname I was barely able to obtain from the author's elderly widow in California before she died. I had spoken to her over the telephone in the 1990s and she had only a couple of copies of the book still available. She not only signed the book for me but she very graciously attempted to make some detailed corrections in it for me. I am very proud of that book as well.
Also in the 1990s, I learned of a book being prepared by a North Carolina author on my mother's family who had become deeply embroiled in a deadly feud with Texas Rangers in deep east Texas in the 1880s. I was not only able to communicate with this author but I also provided him information and pictures for the book. Later I heard the author had become ill and several of us are still waiting for the book to be published. Hopefully, if the book is never published, the author will release his research for someone else to print.
Yes, I was very lucky to have had the use of the LOC for several years. That story entails the death of my father during a period of my life while I was working in D.C. My dad's death made me realize that I was living in the City of Information so I spent nearly every weekend of my last five years there at the LOC. Even beyond its Genealogy Reading Room, the LOC is an amazing library that every American should have the opportunity to visit at least once in their lifetime. That was now over fifteen years ago and I still have LOC copy cards with money on them. The main reading room was where I used to go to "load" my copy cards with money. The room is astounding!
Last edited by High_Plains_Retired; 02-22-2015 at 06:27 PM..
All of my family records are located at our New Mexico home and I am located at our Texas farm so I have few details here with me but I do recall that I have at least one actual typed manuscript of my father's family that was given to me by the nephew of the author. The story is that I had once purchased a piece of Texas property from this nephew not knowing then of the family connections. While we were communicating over other issues regarding the property, he had casually mentioned that his grandmother had been my surname. He also mentioned her family was addressed in a manuscript that had been prepared by an aunt of his. When he told me the name of his aunt, I recognized it from my research as the author of much of the source data in various materials I had reviewed. Surprisingly, the nephew graciously mailed his aunt's entire manuscript to me! I also have copies of several other original manuscripts that had been recorded with the Library of Congress (LOC). These however are all photocopies.
As far as published books, again I don't have my records and books in front of me but I discovered several books closely addressing my ancestral families in the LOC of which my own family was totally unaware. Some of these books I was actually able to track down and obtain copies of. One of my pride and joys is an 1844 edition of Memoirs of Elder Jesse Mercer, a cousin to my father. I keep that book in a safe as it is extremely rare in its original edition.
A few of my books are signed by the authors but most of the authors are now deceased. An older book on my dad's surname I was barely able to obtain from the author's elderly widow in California before she died. I had spoken to her over the telephone in the 1990s and she had only a couple of copies of the book still available. She not only signed the book for me but she very graciously attempted to make some detailed corrections in it for me. I am very proud of that book as well.
Also in the 1990s, I learned of a book being prepared by a North Carolina author on my mother's family who had become deeply embroiled in a deadly feud with Texas Rangers in deep east Texas in the 1880s. I was not only able to communicate with this author but I also provided him information and pictures for the book. Later I heard the author had become ill and several of us are still waiting for the book to be published. Hopefully, if the book is never published, the author will release his research for someone else to print.
Yes, I was very lucky to have had the use of the LOC for several years. That story entails the death of my father during a period of my life while I was working in D.C. My dad's death made me realize that I was living in the City of Information so I spent nearly every weekend of my last five years there at the LOC. Even beyond its Genealogy Reading Room, the LOC is an amazing library that every American should have the opportunity to visit at least once in their lifetime. That was now over fifteen years ago and I still have LOC copy cards with money on them. The main reading room where I used to go to "load" my copy cards with money. The room is astounding!
Wow! that's a lot
yeah it seems you have a lot of great info and treasure for your family
Im sorry about your father.
like you, I would also be interested in that piece about one of your family lines being in a feud against Texas Rangers! that sounds extremely interesting to say the least.
and I agree, a person can spend their entire life at the LOC and still never know enough.
traces my family back to the Wright's, from Washington State. I was shocked to find not only citations, but actual pictures of my fairly recent family. The book is out of print, my Dad bought a copy on a trip to the area, he found in a used book shop.
I have a cousin in Arkansas Edna, who has a friend in Germany that stated he had seen somewhere a book about my father's family. I haven't contacted the ZMilwaukee public library in regards to any german books they might have,but my dad years ago mentioned seeing the family in some german book there. I do know the relatives in Germany in Nuremberg keep the family history book and my dad when he was TDY for the AirForce got to Garmisch. He spoke to the parish priest and found out a few things about his cousins there,but was unable to make the trip to Nuremberg as he just didn't have the time.
My wife put together a book of my family's geneology back to the Lord Mayor of London in the 1400s. Book is around 460 pages. I'm related down the road to Miles Standish. She has a transcript of his last will and testament.
I have seven family history books in my personal library. Some appear to be more accurate than others. There are two related to my surname. The most recently published is very accurate due to the hard work of a group of a dozen serious family historians, including my father, who worked together or about twenty-five years to compile it.
I was all excited last week when I found a book published in 1895 on one of my lines: One Thousand Years of Hubbard History.
It traces the Hubbard (and Hobart) lines in the US back to the original Puritan colonists in the 1600s, back to England, and (supposedly) all the way back to Viking/Dane invaders.
Yes, I know that the medieval stuff was largely speculative, though they did cite some earlier records of English Hubbards tracing themselves to "Hubba" the Dane. But what disappointed me was that even info on the more recent people was clearly inaccurate.
One example was my ancestor George Hubbard 1675-1765. The book says he was a Lieutenant in the British Army, commissioned by King George II. So far so good. It says he received his commission in 1728, making him 53. Kind of old, but still possible. Then it says that he served in the French & Indian War, and was at the battle of Quebec. Hmmm, the French & Indian war was 1754-1763, and the battles over Quebec were in 1759-1760. I find it really, really hard to believe that an 84 year old man fought at the battle of Quebec.
I guess I'm just crushed, because of course online information can be wrong, but I would expect an actual book, published in the 1800s to be somewhat reliable! It's not like modern times when people can self-publish a "book." Back in 1895, a whole lot of effort went into publishing books. This wasn't one of those books of "biographical sketches" of lots of local figures--we all know those are unreliable, as they were just based on oral reports/interviews from people wanting to inflate the importance of their family.
I don't know why I expected accuracy, considering that I've even found gravestones with incorrect info (I had thought that if someone is spending money to have something carved in stone, they'd make sure it was correct!)
How about the rest of you who have found books about your ancestors/ family lines? How accurate or inaccurate were they?
I have found several and I've also found errors that I know are errors. One book has my great great grandmother married to her son! And people often got Wilie and Willie mixed up. Because of those errors it makes me not completely trust anything else in the book. And I wonder if descendants of people in the book notice any errors like I did. There's a ton of inaccuracies in genealogy, no doubt about it, but I try my best to make sure I don't pass them on.
Well, it's not like everyone who ever lived in an entire county was mentioned in detail in those type of books - mostly, only the most prominent members of the community would get lots of mention, and everyone else, if they got a mention at all, it would only be brief. It sounds pretty normal for ancestors who weren't prominent members of the community. Doesn't mean they didn't exist.
My ancestors got talked about a lot. Mostly the 'bad' stuff they did/didn't do. lol Almost every member of the few families living there then went on to become "prominent" and have the most history recorded.
traces my family back to the Wright's, from Washington State. I was shocked to find not only citations, but actual pictures of my fairly recent family. The book is out of print, my Dad bought a copy on a trip to the area, he found in a used book shop.
That reminds me of a book I found for my mom. She was born in Paddington, Sydney, Australia and I found a cook book at a used book store that was based on Paddington. It had pen and ink drawings of the homes and businesses, etc. in Paddington and the house she grew up in was one of them. What a surprise! I didn't know that when I gave her the book but she found it and showed me.
That reminds me of a book I found for my mom. She was born in Paddington, Sydney, Australia and I found a cook book at a used book store that was based on Paddington. It had pen and ink drawings of the homes and businesses, etc. in Paddington and the house she grew up in was one of them. What a surprise! I didn't know that when I gave her the book but she found it and showed me.
That must have been a nice surprise for your mum
Btw Paddington is now a very trendy and expensive suburb - it would be rare to find a terrace for under $1 million.
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