The Sleuth Book for Genealogists: Strategies for More Successful Family History Research

Okay, I'm a sucker for most any story or book interspersed with quotes from classic lit & novels. In Emily Ann Croom's "The Sleuth Book of Genealogists" she invokes the detective methods of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot & Miss Marple, & other classic sleuths like Sherlock Holmes, to refine your detecting and analytical skills in genealogical research. The analogy is dead on (no pun intended : p ) & a lot of fun to follow. Chapters in the book (because I appreciate it when other reviewers do this) are: (1) Putting a Down Payment on Success (2) Planning for Research (3) Broadening the Scope: Cluster Genealogy (4) Documenting Research (5) Gathering Information Research (6) Examining Evidence: The Gray Cells in Action (7) Arranging Ideas: Progress Reports (8) Reporting: Case Solved (9) Finding the Parent Generation: The Search for Isaac Heldreth's Parents [case study] (10) Finding Slave Ancestors: The Search for the Family of Archie Davis, Sr. [case study] (11) Finding the Parent Generation: The Search for Ann (Robertson) Croom's Parents [case study] I highly recommend reading chapter 6, which is the genealogical skill level that I'm working on. Now as Holmes is quoted on page 190, "Those are the main facts of the case, stripped of all surmise, and stated as baldly as possible." This book is a great primer for moving beyond basic census, marriage, & probate research into evaluation of records for subtle clues & steps for further exploration. Best of luck on your family research.

Excuse me while I gush, but if I could give this book 6 stars, I would. Why? There are so few intermediate genealogy instruction books out there. Most books are of either the reference variety or of the beginner variety, even if they are broken down into specialty topics. How many times do publishers think we need to see the same old information? Apparently a lot. However, we do have this gem.This book mainly introduces the concept of cluster genealogy and shows you several plans of attack as well as case studies. Cluster genealogy, being the approach that you focus on non direct family members of your ancestors as well as direct so that you can fill gaps and find pieces of information that lead you to new ancestor discoveries or provide much needed context to family relationships.Although the author does accept that you the reader has a basic knowledge of genealogy already, she does start her case studies from the beginning of a genealogical problem, gives you a research outline and follows through. In the end, she gives you the ability and power to apply logic properly toward methodical family research. She covers a large amount of kinds of records as well as introducing skills in breaking down the facts from them so that they can be applied to research. There are very few genealogical books that once you have acquired information asks "what does this mean?"Too many genealogy books act as if genealogy is a tidy, pat thing. Sometimes it may be, but mostly it is not. Everytime you find a new piece of information you will have a question about it. Following up on these questions is how you make discoveries.This book does not cover online genealogical databases. It covers how to apply original source material only. The reason should be obvious, but a small quote from the book should explain: "In genealogy seminars and classes, people continually report, 'I am so excited; I just found nine generations of my family on the XX database,' and 'I found all my grandfather's ancestors on the internet.' Such people rarely use what they find as clues or try to get in touch with the submitter. They swallow the information as part of their completed genealogy and do not do the research necessary to check it out. Instead, they turn to another part of the family that was not on the database to begin their research."There is also a very nice style section toward the back of this book, which helps with documentation of sources for what you find along the way. You, or someone else will have to view that source again someday, you might as well make finding it again easy on the both of you!I will agree that at times, as one of the other reviewers mentioned, that the quotes from fictional sleuths were a bit distracting. I honestly believe this is a typeface, book layout issue instead of being a content issue. The second time I read this book, a year after I'd read it the first time, I was not distracted. And to be honest, they are entertaining and do provide you with

Veteran genealogy author Croom has done it again. She's produced a "strategy" book for genealogy detective work that is a sure-fire winner for beginning searchers, a delight for mystery lovers, and a valuable learning tool for advanced genealogists.She sustains the detective theme throughout with quotes from both familiar and famous literary sleuths ranging from Sherlock and Hercule to Mark Twain and Margaret Truman. Best of all, her quotes are not simply window-dressing to begin or end a section, but are carefully woven into her discussion of various topics. Furthermore, her bibliography not only contains a remarkably up-to-date genealogy list, but also the sources of her "detective" quotes and further reading about detective work.Genealogy is detective work, and Croom makes it fun. Her carefully planned strategies are solid research techniques which all family historians would benefit from implementing. A glance at the table of contents reveals the wealth of solid information about the research process: defining the problem, developing a plan, broadening the scope, documenting research, gathering information, examining the evidence, arranging ideas in progress reports, completing the project. Additional chapters are devoted to three model searches including one for finding slave ancestors and another for tracing a female line.The appendices alone are worth the price of the book, Appendix B is an excellent guide to documentation style which incorporates the guidelines of the best available, and current citation information from the MLA Handbook, the Chicago Manual of Style, Elizabeth Mills' Evidence, and Lackey's Cite Your Sources.The icons for tips and notes in the margins not only highlight important points from the text, but allow for lots of marginal notetaking by the reader as well.A delightful and valuable addition to the library of the mushrooming number of family history detectives, Croom's book is a "must read."