County Histories, Published Family Histories and Genealogy Journals

Nineteenth-century county histories, compiled genealogies and scholarly journals can hand you generations of research, if you know how to use them and when not to trust them.

3 min read

Long before websites, genealogists published their work: in county histories, in book-length family genealogies, and in journals and society newsletters. These published sources can save you months of work, or send you down the wrong path for years. Here's how to find them and how to evaluate them.

County histories

Between about the 1870s and the early 1900s, publishers produced detailed histories for counties across the country, especially in the Midwest. A typical county history includes:

• The settlement of the county and each township, often naming early settlers
• Histories of churches, schools, businesses and newspapers
• Lists of soldiers, officials and early landowners
• A long biographical section with sketches of local residents

The biographical sketches are the treasure. A sketch might give a man's birthplace, his parents' names, when the family came to the county, and the names of his wife and children. For an ancestor born in the early 1800s, it may be the only source that names where they came from.

"Mug books": read them with care

Many county histories were sold by subscription. People paid to be included, and often paid extra for an engraved portrait, which is why historians nicknamed them "mug books." The subject or their family usually supplied the information. That makes the sketches valuable (the informant knew the family) but also flattering and sometimes wrong, especially about events long before the subject's birth. Treat the facts as leads, and confirm them in original records.

Published family histories

Thousands of book-length genealogies trace all the descendants of an immigrant ancestor, especially for colonial New England, Pennsylvania German and Southern families. Quality varies enormously:

• The best cite their sources for every fact, separate proven facts from guesses, and are written by experienced genealogists. Some are classics that are still trusted today.
• The worst repeat family legends as fact, invent noble origins, or merge different people with the same name.

Check whether later research has corrected a book. Scholarly journals regularly publish corrections to well-known genealogies, and modern DNA studies have overturned some classic lines.

Genealogy journals and periodicals

Genealogical journals publish carefully researched articles, many of which solve specific family problems or publish abstracts of records. Some of the most respected include:

• The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (published since 1847)
• The American Genealogist (TAG)
• The National Genealogical Society Quarterly
• The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record

Thousands of state, county and ethnic genealogical societies also publish quarterlies and newsletters. These often contain record transcriptions found nowhere else: cemetery readings, Bible records submitted by members, abstracts of early court records and tax lists, and queries from other researchers.

Finding articles with PERSI

The Periodical Source Index (PERSI), created by the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, indexes articles in thousands of genealogy and local history periodicals by surname, place and subject. It's searchable on Findmypast. A PERSI search for your ancestor's county, for example, may lead you to a society quarterly that published that county's 1820 tax list.

Once you've found an article, get a copy from a library that holds the periodical, by interlibrary loan, or from the Allen County Public Library's copy service. See America's Great Genealogy Libraries.

Where to find published sources

• Free digital libraries, where many county histories and older genealogies are online free. See Free Digital Libraries.
• WorldCat, to find which libraries own a book
• The FamilySearch catalog, searched by surname or by place
• Your state library and local historical society
• HeritageQuest Online, through many public libraries. See Your Public Library.

How to use what you find

1. Note the source: author, title, publisher, year and page.
2. Separate what's stated from what's documented. Does the book cite a will, a deed, a Bible? Or is it family tradition?
3. Go to the original records the book cites, or should have cited, and check them yourself.
4. Watch for conflicts with other evidence, and resolve them before you rely on the book. See The Genealogical Proof Standard.