The Power of Place

Welcome to this special issue of Family Tree Magazine, America’s favorite magazine for discovering, preserving and celebrating your family history. Our focus in this 2002 edition of our annual genealogy sourcebook is on place — or, rather, places, the countless places from coast to coast where you’ll find answers about your ancestors.

After all, your ancestors’ lives — and the records that you can use to re-create their history — were inextricably linked to the places they lived. Whether they stayed in one place or migrated across the country in search of a better life, they left their mark on the places where they were born, married, bought land, raised families, wrote wills, paid taxes, got counted in the census, died and were buried. Tracing their histories will inevitably mean a lesson in geography as well as genealogy.

In this issue, we’ve concentrated on genealogical and heritage-related resources across the United States. Even tracing your immigrant ancestors, after all, starts with identifying the first to enter this country, when and where. And readers with Canadian roots shouldn’t feel left out: We’ll have a complete guide to Canadian genealogy in our regular April 2002 issue.

In the pages that follow, you’ll find an exhaustive guide by contributing editor Nancy Hendrickson that will help you research your family history in every US state. Look for organizations, publications and Web sites for each state grouped by geographic region. Within each region, you’ll find “city guides” that will lead you to genealogical and historical destinations in a sampling of major US cities, complete with tips on food, lodging and transportation geared to genealogists’ favorite destinations within those cities. (If we missed your favorite city, write us at FTMIetters@fwpubs.com and let us know which cities you’d like to see covered in the future.) Each state’s section also includes a sampling of festivals and living history attractions where you can get a sense of what your ancestors experienced in these places in the past.

Most of the books mentioned in these listings are available through national bookstore chains such as Barnes & Noble <www.bn.com>, Borders <www.borders.com> and Amazon <www.amazon.com>, or from your favorite independent bookseller. Those published by Betterway Books can also be purchased from <www.farmilytreemagazine.com/store>. For harder-to-find volumes, we’ve listed a Web site or phone number where you can order. See <www.audiotapes.com> or call (219) 465-1234 to order Audiotapes.com’s recorded lectures.

These guides will also lead you to more resources and links for each state:

PUBLICATIONS

• Ancestry’s Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources edited by Alice Eichholz (Ancestry)

• The Genealogist’s Companion & Sourcebook by Emily Anne Croom (Betterway Books)

• The Handybook for Genealogists, 9th edition (Everton Publishers)

WEB SITES

• Ancestry.com

<www.ancestry.com/learn/reference/state.htm>

• Cyndi’s List

<www.cyndislist.com/usa.htm>

• FamilySearch Research Outlines

<www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/RC/frameset_rhelps.asp>

• Genealogy.com

<www.genealogy.com/00000174.html>

• USGenWeb

<www.usgenweb.org>

In addition to our “Genealogy USA” roundup, this special issue also features 365 Web sites worth checking out for your family history — one for every day of 2002. Plus we’ve included our annual update on genealogy software.