"how-to" magazines & journals* Indexing * More Links
"How-to" magazines and journals
Currently Published * No longer published *
You may want to subscribe to one or more of these currently published "how to" periodicals:
As your research becomes more focused and you become more interested in publishing your genealogy, you may find you want to subscribe to some of the more scholarly genealogy journals. These periodicals publish well researched genealogical summaries that are valuable not just for the lineage covered, but for insights into methodology and variety of sources available to the genealogists.
- The American Genealogist (nicknamed TAG) was founded in 1922 by Donald Lines Jacobus and has promoted careful analysis and thorough documentation through publication of articles that rise to the standards set forth by the editors.
- NGS Quarterly (with membership in the National Genealogical Society) is another of the more scholarly magazines with articles about families that are both instructinve and interesting, even though you may not have related ancestors, as well as guides for researching localities and record types.
Some magazines are specific to a locality
One of the most well known of these is New England Historic & Genealogical Register, oftern referred to as "the Register". This contains a number of articles about New England Ancestors, but as with the NGS Quarterly and TAG, you will find the articles instructive whether they contain information about one of your families or not.
Often when you join a genealogical society, whether it covers a region, a state or a county, you will receive a subscription to a periodical as part of your membership. Check out the site of the state genealogical society and those local societies in areas you are researching.
FamilySearch Wiki provides information and links to help you find societies, many of which will offer a quarterly or other regular publication.
Some magazines are no longer published, but still may be useful to you. Some that have more recently ceased publishing are described below.
- Ancestry.com published Ancestry Magazine for several years. It tended to describe and plug books and databases on Ancestry.com, but that didn't overwhelm the content of the magazine, which was varied and interesting.
- The Genealogical Helper 1947-
Everton's Family History Magazine 2002-2004
Everton's Genealogical Helper 2004-2009 -- The grand daddy of genealogy magazines, updated for the computer age and for several decades, the only general genealogy magazine published the U.S. The magazine struggled to keep it's own style, but compete with the newer magazines, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable. The last issue was the January/February 2009 issue.
- The content of this magazine was always good; in the last three years of its publication, under the editorship of Leland Meitzler, it was very, very good, especially so for European content.
- Some back issues are for sale.
- Many libraries will have back-runs of this magazine. If you find a run, you will want to go through at least the last decade of the magazine.
- Back issues are available on the internet through the $subscription site$ VitalRecords.com (excepting, for some reason, the January/February 2009 issue).
- Heritage Quest ceased publication with no. 115, Fall 2005. (back issues are still available).
- This magazine often had especially good information on foreign research; again, much credit goes to Leland Meitzler, who's contributions to the field of ancestors from Europe has been significant.
- Earlier issues contained a more substantial magazine.. bigger in size and covering topics in greater depth. The more recent issues were ighter in both ways, evidently competing with the style of Family Tree and Ancestry, but it still remained more in-depth than either of them.
- Of course these issues won't have useful internet information, but they contain many articles of value to the serious researcher, especially so for the genealogist who is researching ancestors in foreign countries.
Indexes to Genealogy periodicals
All multi-periodical indexes are topical; they index names, locations and topics as represented in the title or description of the article. None are all-name or all-place indexes.
- PERSI: While not the only index, PERSI (Periodical Source Index) is the most commonly used, most up to date and largest index
- it was created by staff of the Allen County Public Library and indexes their very comprehensive collection of genealogy periodicasl
- It indexes surnames, topics and localities named in titles and descriptions for articles in periodicals received by the Allen County Public Library.
- Note it does not index every name found in an article; only those mentioned in the title or description.
- It is available in book form through 1997, which can be cumbersome to use, and can be found in libraries with large genealogy collections.
(find in a library). After 1997 it is available only online.
- PERSI is available online at findmypast.com.
- Here is the link to the PERSI search page on findmypast.
- free to everyone, though findmypast is a subscription database
- individuals with subscriptions to findmypast will also have the ability to view some (nowhere near all) articles online.
- Remember: findmypast is one of the free databases you can use in any Family History Center
- How to Use and Search PERSI
- If you find an article you want to read, you can order a copy of that article from the Allen County Public Library.
- GPAI (Genealogical Periodical Annual Index) covers periodicals 1962-2001, when it ceased publishing.
- An annual series that has not been compiled, these must be checked one by one.
- Some volumes can still be purchased, but you are more likely to want to use them in a library.
- It indexed many, but by no means all genealogical publications.
- You will probably be better served by using PERSI.
- Preview volumes are available on Google Books; there is a key to the abbrevations in each volume.
- I would be remiss if I didn't mention these two older indexes, although again PERSI is a more likely resource.
More information about these indexes can be found in Wynkoop. Genealogy Periodical Indexes: Persi, the GPAI and AGBI
More Information and Links
A few articles on the web will explain why you will want to use genealogy periodicals. Cyndi's list will provide links to even more information.
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