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Saturday, July 03, 2010

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy: Challenge 26 - Google Books

Amy Coffin has created a wonderful weekly research/blogging theme for 2010 called 52 Weeks To Better Genealogy, which can be found at Geneabloggers. Each week she presents an idea to further your genealogical research and thus have something to blog about. This week, the theme is Google Books: "Take a stroll through Google Books. Most of us have probably used Google Books in our genealogy research, but have you really taken the time to explore what’s there? Look at the magazines and featured books. Check out the subjects offered. By taking the focus off research for a bit, your mind is open to see other ways this tool can be used."

I've been a fan of Google Books for a long time. In fact, when I wrote a post in November 27 about how I found mention of Alice Teddy, the Rollerskating Bear (trained by the brother of an ancestor of mine) in Google Books, I was contacted by Google and asked if I would be willing to show how Google Books can be used for genealogical research as part of their video series on YouTube. I happily complied, and you can see Researching Your (Ancestral) Roots below:


Obviously, Google Books has infinite possibilities in the realm of historical and genealogical research. Here are some ways that others are using Google Books in their areas of interest:





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10 comments:

  1. Susan PetersenSaturday, July 3, 2010 at 2:07:00 PM PDT

    Nice video! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Miriam RobbinsSaturday, July 3, 2010 at 2:12:00 PM PDT

    Thanks for taking the time to watch it, Susan! :-)

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  3. Barbara PooleSaturday, July 3, 2010 at 5:27:00 PM PDT

    Miriam, I am so impressed, both the the video content and your super professional manner. I am so glad I watched! Glad they chose you to give the presentation.

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  4. Miriam RobbinsSaturday, July 3, 2010 at 6:34:00 PM PDT

    Barbara, thank you so much for your very kind words...they made my day!

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  5. Debbie Blanton McCoySaturday, July 3, 2010 at 7:53:00 PM PDT

    Miriam, you did a fantastic job on the video! You have a nice speaking voice, you are very professional and I love your hair. :-) Congratulations!

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  6. Miriam RobbinsSaturday, July 3, 2010 at 9:02:00 PM PDT

    Oh, thank you Debbie! As for the hair, it was a favorite cut of mine for about four years, but I have since grown it out.

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  7. AndreaSunday, July 4, 2010 at 6:19:00 AM PDT

    Hi Miriam, I had an ancestor who gave roller skating performances in the 1900s. Most of my info has come from historical newspapers. Great idea to use Google Books. Nice Video!!!

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  8. MartinSunday, July 4, 2010 at 11:15:00 AM PDT

    It's not all peaches and cream at Google Books. See my posting: http://mhollick.typepad.com/slovakyankee/2010/06/this-isnt-helping.html

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  9. Miriam RobbinsMonday, July 5, 2010 at 6:16:00 AM PDT

    Andrea, maybe your ancestor and my relative with the bear knew each other, especially if they both were in Vaudeville! ;-)

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  10. Miriam RobbinsMonday, July 5, 2010 at 6:17:00 AM PDT

    Hi, Martin,

    When I went to find this video to embed it into my post, I found a lot of other videos talking about the problems Google Book Search has had with copyright issues...something I think a lot of online book websites will have to face as well (Internet Archive, Hathi Digital Trust, etc.).

    Thanks for dropping by!

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