"The Oral History Workshop" by Cynthia Hart with Lisa Sampson

I always keep an eye on the genealogy reference section at the local bookstores for interesting new offerings. A little bit ago, I noticed The Oral History Workshop by Cynthia Hart with Lisa Sampson. As a genealogist, interviews are a great way to obtain family history stories and information, so I've been interesting in this book. Today, I finally decided to buy it and I would recommend it to any genealogist or family historian.

The book is organized into advise and tips for before, during and after the interview. The book includes great tips for preparation, including how to make yourself and your interviewee comfortable, different ways to record the interview and the pros and cons of those techniques, ways to keep the interview ethical, and even tips for self-interviewing. Next up, the book includes a large amount of interview questions for just about any situation. From the generic to the very specific, I found a large number of question ideas that were new to me and made we want to grab my recorder and find someone to interview. Finally, this book will also help you to figure out what to do with all the information that you'll collect, from storage and backup copies to indexing and editing to creating books.

The authors obviously have diverse experience with interviewing and have great tips to share. They've organized the book very well and I especially loved the charts filled with quick reference information, such as "recording 101" and "the terrific twenty [questions]" and "a few of their favorite things." Overall, the book is written in an easy style and great tone that makes the book flow seamlessly.

As someone who has done a good number of interviews with family members, I found that this book still offered a lot of great information to offer. After reading it, I asked my mom a few of the questions and got great responses. I even got some information out of my dad, who is makes an interview like pulling teeth. It turns out that, although the only thing he had to say about his wedding was "We went down to the courthouse and got married," he still remembers the exact outfit that my mom wore (which was not a white dress).  I'm looking forward to trying out more of the tips and interview questions from this book in the future.

This book is available from Amazon.com for $10.36 or from BN.com for $11.07.

Got my Kindle 2

I have my Kindle 2! I got it on Tuesday and have been playing with it since then. Overall, I'm very happy and it's a great device. It's very easy to use and I've only had to check with the manual twice to see how to do something. The main page lists your book and in a click you're reading!

So far, I've bought books from my computer and downloaded them to the kindle wirelessly. I've also downloaded a few samples of genealogy books to see which ones I might like to buy.

Most books come with a cover image and a full table of contents/chapter table. You can click on a chapter and be taken to that section of the book. Done reading? The kindle remembers where you left off and will take you right back to your place when you're ready to read again. The kindle also features an experimental web browser. If there is a url in your book, you can click on it and be taken right to that webpage!

There are a few easter eggs as well. Minesweeper anyone?

going slowly insane

I ordered my Kindle from Amazon on 4 February.  On 9 February Amazon announced the Kindle 2 and that all unfulfilled orders (like mine) were upgraded to this second generation device.  But, it won't be released until 24 February.  I've sprung for 2 day shipping and will receive my Kindle 2 on 26 February.  Until then, I'm going slowly insane.

One thing that makes it a little better: I can go ahead and buy books for my Kindle 2.  Of course, there are genealogy books that I'd like on my Kindle.  Here are some of the many offerings, many of which are cheaper than their print version.

• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Genealogy - Kay Ingalls
• Genealogy Online - Elizabeth Powell Crowe
• How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy - George G. Morgan
• Genealogy Uncovered - S. Mills
• The Genealogy Sourcebook - Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
• Find Your Roots Now! - Joe Long
• Doing Oral History - Donald A. Ritchie
• The Organized Family Historian - Ann Carter Fleming
• Your Living Family Tree - Gordan Burgett
• Discover Your Roots - Paul Blake and Maggie Loughran

What to choose, what to choose...?

Visiting Libraries, Pt. 2

Today my mom and I visited the Decatur Library, located in Decatur, DeKalb, Georgia. The Library is a five story building, with the reference section located on the second floor. There is a two level parking deck located behind the library that provides parking for the library and the recreation center next door. The deck does not provide adequate parking and it was pure luck that we found a spot after circling the deck twice - along with about 20 other cars. When going back I might consider taking MARTA or finding a meter spot down the street.

The second floor is the research floor, filled with non-circulating materials. There is a good amount of seating, with electrical plugs for computer chargers. There are two copy machines (15¢ a copy). There are two microfilm machines, though I did not try them today. There are about five rows of books that would be of interest to genealogy researchers. The collection includes a few Atlanta & Atlanta Suburb City Directories for the 1960s, GA County Histories, books of Vital Records for some counties, Census Indices, DAR books and more.

Some records that I found useful were "The Hart of Georgia: A History of Hart County" and the Atlanta Suburban Directories. I was really hoping to find Cobb County, Georgia marriage records, but the ones I found were from too early of a time period. I'm hoping to go back soon to look at the Hart County book again - it was thick and I hardly got started looking at it.

Visiting Libraries, Pt. 1

I'm making an effort to get out from behind the computer and get out to the physical resources. I'm planning visits to multiple libraries, some that I've visited before and others that I haven't.

Today I visited two local libraries: Lawrenceville Public Library & Five Forks Public Library. Both are part of the Gwinnett County Public Library System. Gwinnett County Libraries, in general, offer HeritageQuest and Ancestry.com Library edition for their members.

The Five Forks branch has a microfilm readers and offers the AJC, Gwinnett Daily Post and NY Times on microfilm. They only have one reader, so I have had to wait to use it on occasion. The reader is brand new and now features a 'save to disk' option. I've yet to remember to bring my flash drive, so I haven't tried that function yet.

The genealogy section at the FF branch is rather small:

It consists mainly of advice books, but does have some Gwinnett County Census Index records. I was unaware that this branch carried Everton's Genealogical Helper, which is chock-full of great information. It doesn't look like it's possible to reserve copies though, so it might be hard to get ahold of the new issues as they are released.

The Lawrenceville branch is the central branch for the county. It's older and doesn't have as much room. However, it does have a larger genealogy section than Five Forks. The selection seems somewhat random - there are a lot of books on Crawford County, which is 120 miles away. Many of the books have stickers or stamps that indicate that they were donated to the now defunct Lanier Library, just a little north of us.

There are a few really nice volumes, such as Georgia Interstate Records, Georgia Bible Records, and (for my research purposes) Hart County Marriage Records. Here's a look at their books:

I hope to visit the Decatur Public Library in neighboring DeKalb County tomorrow. From the look of their website, they have an even larger genealogy collection.

publishing

There are a lot of photography website that let you create photo books.  But if I want to create a book, why would I do it through a photography website?  Doesn't it make more sense to make a book through a book publisher's website? I've made a few books with blurb.com and I really like how they've turned out. 

I like blurb because they have an application that you can download which allows you a good amount of options to personalize the book.  I really love the full bleed photo availability.  The best part of blurb is probably the price.  You can get a 7x7 (pictured) book with 40 pages for $12.  

I made some as Christmas presents and sent them out to my Dad's side of the family.  I filled it with family history documents and photos that allowed me to share my research with others.

I've also uploaded a photo of my organizational efforts so far.  I've only just begun...