Making Connections

Happy New Year

I just received my copy of the February 2006 Family Tree Magazine, and wanted to let you know this is the best issue I’ve seen. The “365 Ideas to Trace Your Roots” article is excellent. You’ve given me ideas for every day of the year. I hadn’t even thought of some of the ideas. This issue really got me fired up. Keep up the great work.

I would love to purchase one of the daily calendars you show on the cover of your February 2006 issue. I have been searching for a genealogy calendar for years. Are they available? It would take forever to make one myself. If they aren’t available, maybe that would be a great idea for next year.

Editor’s note: We don’t offer the desk calendar featured on our February 2006 cover, but we do know of a similar product: The Genealogy Daily Calendar contains tips, trivia and terminology; it sells for $12.95 from <www.genealogydaily.com>

Digging Deeper

The article about online pedigrees in the February 2006 issue mentioned that Pedigree Resource File sources and notes are found only on CDs. That’s true, but you don’t have to buy them yourself, unless you want to. You can go to your local Family History Center and use the CDs for free.

I was excited to see James Muse’s will in the magazine (“Gold Digging,” February 2006). He’s my sixth-great-grandfather too — I’m on his son James’ side. I also learned something: The book I got the information from doesn’t mention a son named Thomas, and it wasn’t as long as the one you printed. I have in my notes that Thomas wasn’t mentioned in his father’s will, so I thought he must have died before his father.

Expanding Dominion

Your Virginia state guide in the February 2006 issue is great, but you missed an excellent publication for Virginia records: Series 1 and part of Series 2 of the William and Mary Quarterly have many vital records, marriages for each county, cemetery listings, articles on Virginia families (secondary sources), church records and historical information. The College of William and Mary stopped printing this in the late 1920s. The Virginia Historical Index by Earl Gregg Swem (called Swem’s Index for short) — a set of bound books found in many college libraries — does a good job of locating the right volume for you. I have discovered many more ancestors today by having access to this source.

I know you can’t name every source, but I just thought I would share what I found to be helpful.

Editor’s note: Emily Anne Croom, who wrote our Virginia guide, agrees — in fact, we would have included this publication had space allowed. For a more extensive list of resources for Virginia (as well as the other 49 US states), check out the Family Tree Resource Book for Genealogists (Family Tree Books).

Corrections and updates:

• In our April 2006 roundup of foreign-records databases, we recommended the Irish-records Web site Otherdays.com. Since the magazine went to press, this site has ceased operations.