Genealogy Book List

The Family & Local History Department at CLP-Main has an extensive collection of books on how to carry out family history research. This list highlights a few of the best books for beginning researchers.

 

Genealogy for Beginners

This book is a step-by-step guide to researching your family tree. It covers everything you need to get started, and includes detailed instructions for performing quality family history research. Topics include the best first steps for a researcher, genealogy record types, and the basics of online research. You can also check out this title as an eBook from Overdrive/Libby.


Unpuzzling Your Past: The Best Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy

This book focuses on fundamental strategies for success in your genealogical research. It explains the use of many different records in a comprehensive manner; why a particular kind of record is used, how to use it, and how to interpret the information you find, giving many interesting, helpful examples along the way.



Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com: How to Find Your Family History on the #1 Genealogy Website

Ancestry.com is a very important resource for genealogy researchers, and this book shows you how to take advantage of everything this website has to offer. It includes tips for creating and managing your family tree, details on each of its historical record collections, and many different research strategies with step-by-step examples. Each chapter of the book covers a different portion of the website, including DNA results and using Ancestry’s sister sites, Fold3 and Newspapers.com. You can also check out this title as an eBook from Overdrive/Libby.


Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.org.: How to Find Your Family History on the World’s Largest Free Genealogy Website

FamilySearch.org is a second very important resource for genealogy researchers, and this book teaches you how to maximize all of this website’s research tools. Chapters include U.S. immigration and naturalization records, European and global records, and searching genealogies, the catalog, and FamilySearch’s archive of digitized family history books. Each chapter also includes step-by-step research strategies and search tips. You can also check out this title as an eBook from Overdrive/Libby.


The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy

This book will teach you what DNA tests are available, how to choose the right test to answer your specific questions, and how to use your test results. It includes diagrams and expert definitions of key DNA terms, test comparison guides, and case studies explaining how each type of test can be useful. Chapters also include common misconceptions, ethics and genetic genealogy, and genetic testing for adoption. You can also check out this title as an eBook from Overdrive/Libby or eAudio book from Hoopla.