5 New Books Help in Genealogical Research

Here are some new books you may wish to add to your personal library or recommend that your genealogical library purchase:

* “United States County Courthouse Address Book,” edited by Leland K. Meitzler. Heritage Quest Press, P.O. Box 40, Orting, Wash. 98360. $5.45 postpaid.

You can carry this handy little book with you on genealogical research trips and refer to it often when writing for genealogical information from these repositories. It also includes telephone numbers.

* “Topographical Dictionary of Scotland” (two volumes, 1,233 pages) by Samuel Lewis. Genealogical Publishing Co., 1001 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, Md. 21202. $78.50 set postpaid.

Scottish roots? These massive volumes are invaluable, but such works are frequently overlooked because they do not list ancestors’ names. Seasoned genealogists know half the battle in compiling a family tree is finding the proper locality in which to research.

Originally published in 1846 in London, Lewis’ work will enable you to identify a given locality in relation to a parish, thereby leading you to the parish records you need. Once you establish the exact village or town of your Scottish ancestors, this extensive gazetteer will show which parish records to search for births, marriage and deaths. Modern gazetteers for this purpose are useless.

Scotland’s civil registrations of vital records began in 1855 when all the old parish registers were called in--the majority of these are now in the General Register Office in Edinburgh. However, the LDS (Mormon) Family History Library has copied the parish registers of every parish in Scotland from the earliest date to 1855 and has indexed virtually of all of them--but these fabulous records are useless if you do not know the parish whence your ancestors came.

Looking for an ancestor who came from Johnshaven? You’ll discover it is a village in the parish of Benholme, County Kincardine, Scotland, which contained 1,172 inhabitants (ca. 1846), most of whom were fishermen and weavers.

This treasure is not to be overlooked by those tracing Scottish ancestors.

* “An Index to English Crown Grants in Georgia, 1755-1775,” published by the Reprint Co., P.O. Box 5401, Spartanburg, S.C. 29304. $22 postpaid.

Colonial Georgia researchers need all the assistance they can find: This is a good one--another in the outstanding series published for the R.J. Taylor Jr. Foundation of Atlanta.

It is arranged alphabetically by surname and locality. If your ancestor lived on the Little Ogeechee River, check this reference in the index as well as for his surname to learn about land he may have owned, the parish and date of the survey or grant. This book can guide you to the original Grant Books at the Georgia Department of Archives and History.

* “The New England Historical and Genealogical Register--Index to Volumes 1-50” (two volumes, 1,728 pages), edited and compiled by Josephine E. Rayne, Effie L. Chapman and Theodora Kimball. Picton Press, P.O. Box 1111, Camden, Me. 04843. $113 postpaid.

This work is of immense value to serious researchers of New England lines, professional genealogists and libraries. This comprehensive index includes persons, places and subjects that appeared in the first 50 volumes of the “Register” (1847-1896). It can save you hundreds of trips to libraries.

* “Greensville County (Virginia) Marriages, 1781-1853” (157 pages), by John Vogt and T. William Kethley Jr., Iberian Publishing Co., 548 Cedar Creek Drive, Athens, Ga. 30605. $17 postpaid.

One of the Virginiana Library books being published by Iberian, it is designed so researchers can quickly search by surname for both brides and grooms.

Myra Vanderpool Gormley is author of a recently published book entitled “Family Diseases: Are You at Risk?” available from Genealogical Publishing Co., 1001 N. Calvert, Baltimore, Md. 21202 for $17.45 postpaid.