Making Connections: Clothing Styles, Arizona Records, Genealogy Software

Fashion Sense

Your article “Elements of Style” in the August 2004 issue had some good information on clothing styles. Dover Publications (31 E. Second St., Mineola, NY 11501, <store.doverpublications.com>) has three other books of possible use for 20th-century photos: Everyday Fashions of the Forties as Pictured in Sears Catalogs by JoAnne Olian, Everyday Fashions of the Thirties as Pictured in Sears Catalogs by Stella Blum and Everyday Fashions of the Twenties as Pictured in Sears and Other Catalogs edited by Stella Blum. At times, the publisher has reprints of old Sears, Montgomery Ward and other store catalogs that might be of use. Hope this helps. I enjoy your magazine.

This is an addition to an article that appeared in the August 2004 Family Tree Magazine about the Arizona birth and death records Web site <genealogy.az.gov>. As absolutely wonderful as this site is, for some reason 10 to 15 percent of the birth and death records don’t show up in the online index, and therefore aren’t accessible online. Any researchers who don’t find their relatives there can e-mail the Arizona State Archives at archive@lib.az.us, and we will search our microfilmed birth and death records for them. We do not charge for the first two requests per four-month period (two names per request).

Trick Questioning

I purchased a copy of Family Tree Magazine today, and I am puzzled by your magazine’s principal cover line: “30 Software Tips & Tricks” (June 2004). The reader (such as myself) would assume that the magazine had an article containing 30 tips with regard to genealogy software. When the reader actually gets to the article, it’s not until paragraph three that the author admits his subject matter is solely Family Tree Maker software <www.familytreemaker.com>.

I feel that the article should have been titled “30 Software Tips for Family Tree Maker.” It is incumbent upon a reference publication to ensure that its articles are properly written and that the title of the article isn’t misleading.

As a separate matter, your National Archives article mentions the online access terminals (located in the library), but does not identify this as a required step in the quest for microfilm. It is my professional experience that the researcher almost inevitably scurries between the online computer terminals (containing AncestryPlus and HeritageQuest Online access) in the Archives I library and the Archives I microfilm reading room. The reason: By doing a search on Ancestry.com or HeritageQuest Online, they can easily obtain a printout showing them the enumeration district number, page number and NARA microfilm roll number. This cuts down on research time per name. I know this because I’ve worked in the Archives I library.

Editor’s note: Although our June cover story focused heavily on Family Tree Maker — the software a majority of our readers use — our advice actually covered a half-dozen different genealogy programs. In fact, 24 of our 30 tips included steps for other software, which is why we described them as “software tips.” We strive to give Family Tree Magazine readers balanced coverage: articles that provide different perspectives while addressing the interests of the widest possible audience segment. We hope that our software tips achieved that goal.

From the December 2004 issue of Family Tree Magazine.