A Look Inside “The Mountain People Of Kentucky”

by on May 14, 2012 in Blog

Here is a look inside The Mountain People Of Kentucky. An Account Of Present Conditions With The Attitude Of The People Toward Improvement. This is one of the newest volumes in our American County Histories to 1900 Collection. This book is fully searchable and easy to cite when used by students and writers. Author William H. Haney provides some background for this fascinating book in his preface shown here:

Preface

It is the purpose of this book to show existing conditions in the mountains of Kentucky and the attitude of the people of this region toward the improvement of the conditions affecting life and character. It is also hoped that the chapter on “Who They Are” will modify the views of the general public in regard to the origin of the Mountain People and vindicate their good name against the careless charges so often made. The chapter on “Location,” dealing with natural features and the lack of transportation facilities, accounts for the retarded development; that on “Feuds” discusses the causes and magnitude and the present general tendency in feud districts toward conformity to law and order.

The rapid progress of the Mountain People in spite of their disadvantages shows that they are responsive to the spirit of the age. Their future is most hopeful.

If this book is of some importance in stimulating its readers to a higher plane of life, and in vindicating the name of the Mountain People, the aim of the author will have been achieved.

The writer would express his gratitude to Dr. George A. Hubbell, President of Williamsburg Highland College, for encouragement in this work, and acknowledges his indebtedness for suggestions and assistance at many points in the preparation of the manuscript. He also expresses his hearty thanks to Messrs. May, Seale, Shadoin and a number of other friends for encouragement and information.

–Wm. H. Haney

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Twitter at the #NGS2012 Family History Conference

by on May 13, 2012 in Blog

Throughout the National Genealogical Society’s 2012 Family History Conference in Cincinnati there were dozens and dozens of people actively tweeting from the event.

These tweeting attendees and speakers provided a window into the event for the folks who were not able to attend.

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Dick Eastman Stopped by our Booth at #NGS2012

by on May 11, 2012 in Blog

Mr. Eastman provides a one-line bio for himself on his website that reads: Dick Eastman kept his first genealogy database on 80-column punch cards.

As short as that statement is, it really sums up the way Dick’s passion for technology and genealogy has helped to shape modern technology’s role in genealogy.

From blog.eogn.com:

By the early 1970’s, Dick was already using a mainframe computer to enter his family data on punch cards. He built his first home computer in 1980.

In the mid-1980s, Dick actually went knocking on the door of a rising online star called CompuServe to propose a genealogy forum: a move by which he built a community of family historians over the next 14 years. In late 1995, before most people had heard of the World Wide Web, Dick had a conversation with Pam Cerutti and expressed an interest in creating a weekly newsletter that he could e-mail to genealogists all over the world. Pam replied, “You’ll need an editor.” Dick agreed, and Pam instantly became that Editor.

On January 15, 1996, the two launched Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter as an e-mail publication and announced it to 100 surprised friends and acquaintances.  The present newsletter is read by more than 60,000 genealogists all over the world.

Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter is available in both a Standard and Plus Edition and you can subscribe to either at http://blog.eogn.com/.  Subscribe now and keep an eye out for Dick’s thoughts about Accessible Archives in an upcoming issue of the newsletter.

Follow Dick on Twitter at @dickeastman or on Facebook, or Google+.

Kind Words from Barbara Renick at #NGS2012

by on May 9, 2012 in Blog

We had a surprise visitor at our booth – #436 – in the National Genealogical Society conference exhibit hall today.

Barbara Renick, nationally known lecturer, author, professional genealogist, and operator of zroots.com,  came by and let us know that she both uses and teaches the use of our full-text searchable collections and had this to say:

Accessible Archives provides one of the most valuable genealogical tools I have ever used.

–Barbara Renick

About Barbara Renick

Barbara is currently serving as Secretary on the Board of Directors of the National Genealogical Society.

She began teaching PAF and computer genealogy classes in 1985. She frequently lectures on research topics and teaches computer labs at national conferences and at the Regional Family History Center in Orange, California. Over the years, Barbara has had many articles published and was an NGS contributing editor for eleven years.

She co-authored The Internet for Genealogists: A Beginner’s Guide, made two instructional videos on using the Internet for genealogy, and now publishes instructional videos online at her website .

Her last book, Genealogy 101: How to Trace Your Family’s History and Heritage, was sponsored by NGS for its 100th anniversary. Barbara has served on the APG Board of Directors and as secretary for that organization.

A Look Inside A Short History of the War of Secession.

by on May 8, 2012 in Blog

Here is a look inside A Short History of the War of Secession, one of the volumes in our Civil War: A Soldier’s Perspective collection. This book is fully searchable and easy to cite when used by students and writers. Author Rossiter Johnson explains the guiding principles behind this easy to read book in his preface shown here:

Preface

New York, April 19, 1888.

I had been for some years collecting books, articles, and memoranda concerning the great insurrection and its causes, intending to write its history in full, when I received in 1885 an invitation to tell the story in thirty articles for the pages of the New York “Examiner.” The reception given to those articles made it plain that there was a demand for a history of the war not so extended as to bewilder the reader with multiplicity of details, and not so concise as to preclude all color.

Current literature abounds in minute studies of the separate campaigns and engagements, most of them purely military, and many of them exceedingly valuable; but the reader finds no ready answer to his question, How did it happen that the war took place at all, what was its general course, and what were the motive forces that brought it on, prolonged it, and finished it?

To meet this demand with a single compact volume, is the purpose of the present effort. The “Examiner” articles have been thoroughly revised and extended, and several new chapters are added; so that it is hoped the book will present a fair idea of the great conflict that so nearly wrecked the Republic, though innumerable interesting particulars are necessarily omitted. Scarcely another war in history has had a theatre so extended, few have called out so large armies, and none have sprung from a more popular cause.

There were two thousand four hundred engagements of sufficient importance to be officially named, and many that were costlier of life and limb than some of the famous battles of the Revolution cannot even find mention in a volume like this. Current writers, intent upon military details, almost ignore the causes of the war, the spirit in which it was conducted, the complications that actually arose or were avoided by skillful diplomacy, and the significance of the results. I have therefore treated these subjects in somewhat larger proportion than the battles and sieges.

As the book is intended for easy reading, and not for hard study, I have avoided tripping up the reader on every page with foot-notes and references. In a few cases it seemed desirable to cite my authority, but generally the sources of information are such that this is unnecessary, and the reader that wishes to pursue the subject more minutely can readily find them.

Rossiter Johnson

Rossiter Johnson

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