| Family is forever! That is a lesson I learned at the age of ten when my aunt and grandmother exposed me with pride in our family history. Their stories and enthusiasm sparked an interest in me to explore and learn more on my own. From that day forward, history and geography were no longer just names, dates, and places. They became the world stage on which my ancestors and family members actively participated or observed, and by which they were affected. That perspective has served me well over time because it encouraged me to always try to place my family into context with the places, periods, and events of their lives and to view them as real people.
The first edition of this book was one of the proudest accomplishments in my life, and also one of the most difficult. It was a complex undertaking to summarize more than 40 years of genealogical research experience into a single book. McGraw-Hill’s “How to Do Everything” series is one of the most respected catalog of how-to books available. However, my first reaction to being asked to write a genealogy book for the series was, “No one book can teach everything. In fact,” I said, “volume one of such a work could easily be 15,000 pages long.” No one laughed. Those of us who have been working on our genealogy for a while, however, know that the amount of information and resources available to us is nearly incomprehensible and that a work covering literally “everything” would probably occupy an entire bookcase. Still, I believe that you will find in these pages a well-balanced foundation for your family history investigations. |