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Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter Plus Edition:
Events and Topics of
Interest to Online Genealogists, http://www.eogn.com,
Vol. 10 No. 4 –
January 24, 2005
Elizabeth Petty Bentley has just released a revised and expanded
Fifth Edition of
the Genealogist's Address Book, produced by Genealogical
Publishing Company
(GPC). I have used earlier versions of this book a number of
times in years past
to find addresses or just to find societies devoted to specific
interests, such as
Italian, French-Canadian and other ethnic heritage groups. This
week I tried the
same thing with the latest version and found it to be much
easier to use.
The Genealogist's Address Book serves as a sort of national
Yellow Pages for
the genealogist. Classified by subject, cross-referenced and
alphabetized, it
contains the key sources of genealogical information, giving
names, addresses,
phone numbers, FAX numbers, e-mail addresses, web sites, contact
persons,
and the business hours of more than 25,000 libraries, archives,
genealogical
societies, historical societies, government agencies, vital
records offices,
professional bodies, religious organizations and archives,
surname registries,
research centers, special interest groups, periodicals,
newspaper columns,
publishers, booksellers, services, databases, and much, much
more.
Every new edition of the Genealogist's Address Book that has
appeared always
has been a bigger and thicker book than the previous version.
This week I tried
the 2005 edition and had a pleasant surprise: it is now a tiny
little thing that
weighs a half ounce. The reason for the smaller size is that
this "book" is now a
CD-ROM. That's a good thing as I noticed that the "book" now
contains the
equivalent of 2,684 printed pages!
The other pleasant surprise is that the 2005 edition costs a lot
less than did the
earlier editions. It sells for $39.95 while a printed book of
more than 2,600 pages
probably would cost $75 or more.
The CD-ROM version of the Genealogist's Address Book was created
with
Adobe Acrobat and works equally well on Windows and Macintosh
systems.
While the producing company does not list Linux as a supported
operating
system, I was able to read this book on CD on a Linux system
without difficulty.
Use of the Genealogist's Address Book is simple: insert the CD
into a Windows
or Macintosh computer and wait a few seconds. The autorun
feature then
displays a menu of selections.
NOTE: AutoRun was probably enabled when your Windows computer
was brand
new although I do know some people have turned that off. If
autorun does not
function on your computer, you can still load this CD by using
Windows Explorer
to open the disk and then to browse the contents. If the CD does
not
automatically start, select "Run..." from the START menu, then
type in
"x:\autorun.exe" (replace "x" with the drive letter of your
CD-ROM drive) and click
OK.
Use of the CD is equally easy on Macintosh. On Linux, I had to
use a file
manager to explore the CD's contents and then open the primary
Adobe Acrobat
PDF file, using Adobe Acrobat Reader for Linux.
Navigating the Genealogist's Address Book is simple. The opening
screen
displays a table of contents on the left side of the display.
However, I quickly
learned to use the search button. I clicked on SEARCH and
entered: NEHGS,
the abbreviation for the New England Historic Genealogical
Society. The first
occurrence of those letters appeared on the screen within two or
three seconds.
Then I clicked on "Find Again" and the next occurrence of the
abbreviation
appeared less than a second later. I did this again and again to
find the dozen or
so occurrences of that abbreviation in the book. What could be
easier?
Of course, I could probably do the same thing with the previous
printed version.
However, with the CD-ROM version I could search for "Boston"
just to see all the
addresses listed there, something that would have required hours
to manually
search each page in the previous edition. With the CD-ROM
version, I was able
to step through all occurrences of the word "Boston" in a minute
or so.
Looking at the Table of Contents, I noticed that the
Genealogist's Address Book
is divided into four major sections:
1. National Addresses
2. State Addresses
3. Ethnic and Religious Organizations and Research Centers
4. Special Resources (such as the lineage societies,
adoption
birthparent search organizations, computer interest groups and
more)
The CD also contains an extensive
"back of book" index. If printed, the
index alone would be 258 pages!
While it is super easy to find
information in this new product, I was a bit
disappointed to discover that it
is impossible to copy-and-paste addresses
from the "book" to another
program. The normal Windows or Macintosh
copy function is grayed out and
has been disabled. When I write reviews
of CD-ROM disks, I normally
copy-and-paste a bit of information from the
disk into my review in order to
illustrate the sort of information to be found.
I was unable to do so with this CD.
The only method of copying
information from this CD-ROM resource is to
do so manually; find what you want
in one window, open a new window in
the application you wish to copy
to and then re-type it by hand.
I did find it simple to print
pages from this CD-ROM with one caveat: don't
click on PRINT and then ignore the
options. It seems that the default is to
print all 2,684 pages! To be sure,
if you accidentally click on OK without
noticing the options, you can
always stop the print job later. However, you
might print quite a few pages
before you find the proper menu options to
cancel a print job. This is a
trivial issue: after you click PRINT, make sure
you select CURRENT PAGE to print
just the one page you wish. You can
also print a range of pages, such
as pages 888 through 891.
The Genealogist's Address Book is
based on a written survey of
thousands of organizations and
institutions across the country and
supplemented by information from
printed and Internet sources. I cannot
begin to describe the sorts of
addresses to be found as it seems to have
everything. Want to find the local
state chapter of the Sons of the
American Revolution? It is here.
Want to find French-Canadian genealogy
and heritage societies? You can
find a couple dozen of them listed. Would
you like to find the FAX number of
the National Archives and records
Administration's regional Library
in Fort Worth, Texas? You can find that
listed as well.
The new 4th edition of the Address
Book has been exhaustively revised
and contains thousands of new
entries, and with changes to
approximately 75% of the existing
entries, the new edition updates
addresses and associated details.
It includes hundreds of organizations
that are new to the scene or
overlooked in previous editions, contains an
advertising supplement, and has a
complete index of genealogical
libraries, societies, and
institutions, as well as an exhaustive (also unique)
index of periodicals and
newsletters.
This is a massive amount of labor
compressed into a single CD-ROM
disk. I cannot imagine the labor
that went into creating this reference. The
postage bills alone must have been
huge. I would hope that the author
used e-mail whenever possible.
I will point out that this is a
US-centric publication; it is a reference of U.S.
addresses. I didn't search each
page but, in casual perusal of this book, I
did not see any addresses for
organizations outside the U.S.
The Genealogist's Address Book
should work on any modern computer.
The system requirements are listed
as:
Windows
i486 or Pentium processor-based
personal computer
Microsoft Windows 98 or Windows NT
4.0 with Service Pack 5 or later
operating systems
32 megabytes of available RAM on
Windows
32 megabytes of available
hard-disk space
Acrobat or Acrobat Reader 5.0 with
Search
Macintosh
Apple Power Macintosh or
compatible computer
Mac OS software version 8 or later
12 MB of available RAM
12 MB of available hard-disk space
Acrobat or Acrobat Reader 5.0 with
Search
Linux
As mentioned earlier, the disk
also worked well on my one-time
experiment in Linux. I used Adobe
Reader 5.0 for Linux on a Xandros
Linux 3.0 system. I suspect the
book will work well on all Linux systems
that have a supported version of
Adobe Reader available although I did
not have a variety of systems to
experiment with. Keep in mind that Linux
is not supported by the publisher.
I like the conversion of this book
to CD-ROM. First, a 2,684 page book
contains a lot of information but
probably is cost-prohibitive to print on
paper. Very few of us can afford
to purchase thick reference books of that
size. Next, it is easier to store.
Finally, it is actually faster to find
information on this disk than in a
printed book. To be sure, it does require
a few seconds to locate and load
the disk and then for the Adobe Reader
software load. However, after
that, you can find all occurrences of a name
within seconds, something that
could be tedious and time-consuming in a
printed book.
Elizabeth Petty Bentley is to be
commended for producing this great new
reference book. It should prove to
be very popular in genealogy libraries
and for in-home use alike. The
Fifth Edition of the Genealogist's Address
Book, produced by Genealogical
Publishing Company, retails for $19.99.
It should be available from any
bookstore if you specify ISBN#:
0806315806. It is available for
sale on Genealogical Publishing Company
safe and secure online store at
http://www.genealogical.com/item_detail.asp?afid=&ID=427 .
I wonder if this is a new trend
for Genealogical Publishing Company? I
haven't talked with anyone at the
company, but I realize that they are a
major producer of thick genealogy
reference books. I would not be
surprised to see more books from
this company produced on CD-ROM in
the future. The lower prices would
be good news for all genealogists.
Do you have comments, questions or
corrections to this article? Post your
message at
http://eogn.typepad.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2005/01/genealogis
ts_ad.html
“Computer Genealogist Spotlight”
by Dick Eastman in New England
Ancestors, Spring 2005
The Genealogist’s Address Book has
been a standard reference book for
the past fourteen years.
Author Elizabeth Petty Bentley has performed a
Herculean effort, listing names,
addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers,
email addresses, websites, contact
persons, business hours, and other
pertinent data for more than
16,500 libraries, archives, genealogical and
historical societies, government
agencies, vital records offices,
professional bodies, religious
organizations and archives, surname
registries, special interest
groups, periodicals, newspaper columns,
publishers, booksellers,
databases, and much, much more.
Every few years, Mx. Bentley and
Genealogical Publishing Company have
released new versions, each
containing thousands more entries than the
previous edition. Existing
addresses have been updated in each new
version, as have email addresses
and websites. Many genealogists have
watched this reference book grow
in size with each new edition.
The Fourth Edition contained eight
hundred pages. It was so heavy that it
required two hands to lift.
It weighs as much as the Yellow Pages
telephone directory in many
metropolitan areas. In fact, the Yellow Pages
analogy works in other ways as
well; this thick book serves as a “Yellow
Pages of Genealogy,” listing
thousands of companies and other
organizations of interest to us.
Elizabeth Petty Bentley and GPC
have now released a new update: the
Fifth Edition, dated 2005.
Again, thousands of new and updated
addresses are in the new
edition. In fact, it has grown to 2,684 pages!
Unlike the previous few editions,
the Fifth Edition of the Genealogist’s
Address Book actually weighs less,
a lot less. It totals about one-half
ounce and slips into an overcoat
pocket. This Fifth Edition has been
released only on CD-ROM; there
will not be a printed version.
The conversion to CD format is a
mixed blessing; there is something
comforting about turning pages of
paper in a printed and bound volume.
It is difficult to obtain the same
feeling of satisfaction when reading data
displayed by bouncing electrons on
a computer screen. However, two
facts are inescapable: the CD-ROM
version is much cheaper than printed
equivalents and it is faster to
find information spread throughout its pages.
The last printed edition of The
Genealogist’s Address Book sold for about
$40. With all the new pages
added, a print version of the Fifth Edition
would obviously have higher
costs. The publisher reports that a printed
version would have sold in the $60
to $80 price range. Shipping costs
also would be higher. GPC
has solved this “problem” nicely: the CD-ROM
version sells for only
$19.99. Postage on this half-ounce package should
be minimal.
The information on The
Genealogist’s Address Book is stored in Adobe
Acrobat Reader format. As
such, the disk can be used on any modern
Windows or Macintosh system.
Exact specifications may be found at
www.genealogical.com/item_detail.asp?afid=&ID=7427.
While not mentioned by the
publisher, I used the disk on a Xandros Linux
system and it worked flawlessly
there as well. However, Linux users
should realize that the publisher
does not officially support such usage;
you are on your own.
I found the CD-ROM to be simple to
use: insert the CD into your computer
and a few seconds later a menu
appears. The left side of the menu
screen shows the Table of
Contents: Copyright, Introduction, Contents,
National Addresses, State
Addresses, Ethnic and Religious Organizations,
Special Resources, Index and a
“search for text” selection. The larger
right side “panel” displays the
information you seek.
Using the Table of Contents and/or
Index is almost the same as thumbing
through a printed book: look for
the information you desire and then click
on links to immediately go to the
proper page(s). However, the power of
computers becomes apparent when
selecting “Search for Text.”
The user can search for any word
or combination of words published
anywhere in the book. For
instance, if looking for genealogy sources in
Dexter, Maine, the user can search
for “Dexter” or possibly “Dexter Maine”
in order to not find towns of the
same name in Iowa, Michigan and
elsewhere. Within a very few
seconds the screen will display every
occurrence of those words
regardless of which page they are on. A few
mouse clicks are required to read
the data surrounding each occurrence.
Searching for the same information
in a printed book would consume
many hours.
Initially I had difficulty trying
to copy and paste data ...
p. 45
missing The Connecticut Nutmegger,
June 2005, Vol. 38 #1, p. 87
The Genealogist’s Address Book was
first published in 1991 and
contained addresses, phone
numbers, web sites, etc. to thousands of
libraries, genealogical and
historical societies, governmental agencies,
periodicals and other
resources. Every edition has been updated with
numerous entries added. The
fourth edition was an 800 page book and
now the fifth edition is available
for the first time on CD-ROM. This edition
has again expanded the available
information, especially the sections on
historical societies and religious
archives. The CD is divided into
parts—for example, National, State
and Ethnic. There is an index and an
easy to use search capability
using Adobe PDF.
JPB
FGS Forum, Summer 2005, Vol. 17,
#2, p. 29
This mammoth collection of data
(2684 pages) is now published as Adobe
Acrobat files on CD-ROM rather
than on paper. The compiler sent
questionnaires to libraries,
archives, genealogical and historical societies,
publishers and vendors.
Requests were for name and address, all contact
and Website information, contact
persons, hours of operation, periodical
title, frequency of publication
with subscription costs, membership and
search fees, with comments about
the organization’s specialty. The data
is presented in four sections:
National Addresses, State Addresses, Ethnic
and Religious Organizations, and
Special Resources. There is an index
and the ability to search the text
for any word or combination of words.
Much of the data presented here
changes often such as phone numbers,
Web addresses and names of
people. More accurate and up-to-date
information is likely to be
available by searching online. However, this
compilation is designed so that
you do not have to do multiple searches
online and it could help locate
less well-known resources or organizations,
or those organizations not yet
having a Web presence.
Tennessee Genealogical Society
Ansearchin’ News, Vol. 53, #2
Previous editions of The
Genealogist’s Address Book have been
published in book form.
However, since this fifth edition is so much larger,
the only practical format is the
CD. This CD is organized by subject, and
contains the names, addresses,
phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail
addresses, Web sites, contacts,
and business hours for more than 16,500
national and state archives,
government offices, vital records offices,
libraries, historical and
genealogical societies, and independent
publishers. It also contains
the same information on ethnic organizations,
religious research centers and
other special resources. This CD is easily
and fully searchable and is
indexed by national, state, local, lineage,
heredity, and patriotic
societies. This CD is the only source of such a
comprehensive list of resources
and will give the researcher ideas of
places to go that most people do
not know exist. It is a must for libraries
and a great tool for all
researchers.
“Kissin’ Kuzzins” by Carolyn
Ericson in The Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, 2
Feb 2005, p. 3E
If you are always looking for one
address or another, I have just the thing
for you. Genealogical
Publishing Company has put Elizabeth Petty
Bentley’s “Genealogist’s Address
Book” on a CD. It comes with Adobe
Acrobat 3 on the disk. It
works better with this version than a later version
of Adobe. I tried it with
version 6, and the page was so small you couldn’t
read it.
Genealogical Societies are listed,
with the name of their publication,
amount of dues, and the area
covered. County courthouses and libraries
are listed with the hours of
operation. I will never forget going to the
library in Los Angeles to find
that it was statehood day, and it was closed.
This CD will take up much less
space than the book version of this
information. If you are like
some of us, shelf space is at a premium.
“Family Branches” by Vicky
Zuverink in The Tribune, 30 January 2005, 3B
Another source helpful to
researchers is the newly revised 5th Edition CD-
ROM “The Genealogist’s Address
Book” by Elizabeth Petty Bentley. The
last edition was in book form and
was more than 800 pages. This new
edition is much larger and could
not be produced in book form because of
its size. Information
includes names, addresses, websites, and phone
numbers of sources with
genealogical information such as libraries,
archives, and genealogical
societies.
This type of resource can
enlighten the researcher on organizations and
societies which the researcher
never knew existed.
“Kin-Searching” by Marleta Childs
in Amarillo Globe-News, 13 March 2005
5th edition of genealogical
‘yellow pages’ available
Often acclaimed the national
“yellow pages” for the family researcher,
Elizabeth Petty Bentley’s “The
Genealogist’s Address Book” is now
available in a new fifth
edition. Due to the size and scope of this
expanded version, the work is
produced in CD format only.
Based on a written survey of
thousands of organizations and institutions
across the United States and
supplemented by information from printed
and internet sources, the fifth
edition of Bentley’s “Genealogist’s Address
Book” contains extensive updated
material. Organized by subject and
fully searchable, the CD puts
family researchers in touch with key sources
of genealogical information.
Pertinent data concerning more
than 16,500 archives, libraries,
genealogical and historical
societies, vital records offices, government
agencies, professional bodies,
surname registries, research centers,
special interest groups,
genealogical periodicals, newspaper genealogical
columns, publishers, booksellers,
databases and other related services
appear on the CD. This
expanded edition reflects the exploding growth in
the field of genealogy the past
few years by adding thousands of new
entries (such as additional
historical societies and organizations), URLs
and e-mail addresses.
Although details for entries vary,
most contain all or part of the following:
name, physical location, postal
and e-mail addresses, telephone and FAX
numbers, Web sites, names of
contact people and business hours.
New to this edition is an expanded
section pertaining to religious archives.
Bentley includes information on
many of the smaller denominations and
furnishes notes in the
cross-references that trace the “genealogy” of the
often complex schisms.
The only publication containing a
comprehensive updated list of
genealogical and historical
resources, Bentley’s survey can help
streamline research and point you
toward useful places you previously did
not know existed. Since the
cost is affordable, many people will want to
purchase “The Genealogist’s
Address Book” CD to have it handy.
“Illinois Ancestors” by Joan
Griffis in The News-Gazette, Champaign,
IL, 3 Feb 2005, p. D-6
‘Genealogist’s Address Book’ now
on CD
The resources available to
genealogists are more extensive than
many researchers realize. In
1991, Elizabeth Petty Bentley published
“The Genealogist’s Address Book”
as a national “Yellow Pages” to all
genealogy-related entities.
As the interest in genealogy
expanded, so have subsequent editions
of her indispensable
reference. The fourth edition, published in
1998, had more than 800 pages,
resembling a 2-inch telephone
book. Since a new fifth
edition would need to include many
additional resources, the
publishers found it more practicable to
produce it as a CD. What a
wonderful idea!
“The Genealogist’s Address Book
Fifth Edition CD” follows the same
format as previous editions.
Following the Introduction there is a list
of contents, followed by Part 1,
National Addresses; Part 2, State
Addresses; Part 3, Ethnic and
Religious Organizations and Research
Centers; Part 4, Special Resources
(which includes lineage,
hereditary and patriotic
societies, adoption registries, immigration
research centers, computer
interest, newspapers, lending libraries,
radio programs, etc.); and an
index.
Information pertaining to the more
than 16,500 libraries, archives,
societies, publishers, book
dealers, etc., may include names,
addresses, phone numbers, fax
numbers, e-mail addresses, Web
sites, contact persons, business
hours and other pertinent
information.
This edition has many more
historical and genealogical societies than
the previous edition, as well as a
greatly expanded Religious archives
section, including many smaller
denominations. I also noticed,
under Revolutionary War (as part
of the Heritage Societies section),
individual state chapters of the
DAR (Daughters of the American
Revolution) and SAR (Sons of the
American Revolution) are
identified. The list of
organizations pertaining to adoptions is also
very lengthy.
Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 is
automatically installed when the CD is
inserted, and a search feature
enables one to find specific items. I
personally appreciate having the
book in this format since I can
easily print any pages that are
pertinent to my research (e.g., a
portion of the index or a portion
of a special category) so that I can
include such pages in my notes.
No longer will it be necessary to
perform extensive searches online
for the genealogical information
you need. Also, by viewing various
categories at your leisure, you
may discover places having
genealogical information that you
hadn’t considered before. You
won’t be able to read all 2,684
pages that easily, but you can readily
discover the resources appropriate
for your research.
Bentley’s reference should be a
part of every serious genealogist’s
library!
Anne Arundel Speaks [Maryland]
June-Sept 2005, p. 33
This is another publication in
electronic form and contains 2684
pages of names, addresses, phone
numbers, FAX numbers, e mail
addresses, web sites, contact
persons, and other helpful data on
over 16,5000 libraries, archives,
government agencies, vital records
offices, religious organizations,
periodicals, newspaper columns, and
book sellers.
The Fourth Edition contained over
800 pages. The present edition
could never have been published in
book format. The electronic
format allows much more data to be
included. There are four main
parts to the book: (1) National
Addresses, (2) State Addresses, (3)
Religious and Ethnic
Organizations, and (4) Special Resources.
Following the Index is a section
called “Search the Text,” which
brings up a “Find” Box, enabling
the reader to find a specific topic.
The Maryland section covers some
24 pages.
If you are never going to do
research outside your own little corner
of the world you may not need this
electronic book. However, if you
want to trace as many descendants
of your immigrant ancestor as
you can, even down to five
generations, and you find that some of
those descendants moved to other
counties, or states, then you will
find this book invaluable.
l
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