US Genealogy Writer's Market -- a quick questionnaire for editors

19 August 2013

Dear Genealogy Periodical Editors:

How do genealogical authors find your publication?

Genealogy periodicals—from popular magazines to state and national journals to the newsletters of local genealogical societies—are vital to the genealogy community.

Among other vital roles, periodicals

• educate genealogists about records and research methodology;
• enable genealogists with similar research interests to communicate with each other;
• share local, national, and international news of concern to genealogists; and
• allow researchers to publish the fruits of their research efforts.

Despite this central position in the genealogy community, there exists no central resource bringing together all of the genealogy periodicals published in the United States.

To do this we plan to publish the first U. S. Genealogy Writer's Market in early 2014. This book will list basic details about genealogy periodicals, so that genealogical researchers and prospective writers can quickly and easily locate their ideal publishing markets.

In order to do this we need your help—just fill out the short online questionnaire at this address:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GWM-Editors

Please feel free to alert other editors to this project. If you have any questions or comments, please contact either of us at our respective emails.

Harold Henderson, CG

librarytraveler@gmail.com

Michael Hait, CG

michael.hait@hotmail.com 

Harold Henderson and Michael Hait, "US Genealogy Writer's Market -- a quick questionnaire for editors," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 19 August 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Illinois Genealogy, 40 years of history

The Illinois State Genealogical Society is 40 years old, and this spring's quarterly celebrates by including a number of vintage articles and a portrait of founding president (and new member of the National Genealogical Society hall of fame) Lowell Volkel on the cover:

"Illinois State Genealogical Society Capsule History 1968-1983," from 1983

"Address by Theodore Cassady, Assistant Archivist, State of Illinois," from 1969

"Land Records in the Illinois State Archives," from 1969

"Early Illinois Immigrants," from 1969

"Illinois Historical Records Survey," from 1969

"Early Cemeteries in Chicago," from 1969

"A Short History of Revolutionary War Pension Resolutions," from 1969

Current articles:

"Finding Your Ancestors in History" by Margaret Kapustiak

"The Digital Revolution in Genealogical Research: What's Coming from Family Search, Part 2," by Susan A. Anderson

"Ask the Retoucher!" by Eric Curtis M. Basir

ISGS's 40th anniversary conference will be 18 October 2008 at Elgin Community College in Elgin, Kane County.

Michigan Genealogist covers everything from Virginia to Ontario

Michigan Genealogist (PDF) isn't a publication of the Michigan Genealogical Society, because there isn't one (the only statewide genealogy organization is a council of local groups). It's the quarterly newsletter of the state's Department of History, Arts, and Libraries, and it's an on-line publication.

The fourth issue of 2007 -- mostly written by librarians and archivists with reference to their employer's holdings -- covers an amazing amount of ground. The following is a selection:

"Map Guide to German Parish Registers," by Kendel Darragh

"Researching Your Ontario Ancestors"

"Using Online Indexes to Michigan Land Records," by Gloriane Peck

"Research with Probate Records," by Kris Rzepczynski

"The First Three Years of the Michigan First Vital Records Act" (i.e., 1867-1870), by Charles Hagler

"Virginia Genealogy Sources for Michiganders" (this is not a joke!), by Edwina Morgan

"The Birth and Death of Lansing's Black Neighborhoods," by Robert Garrett

And where else are you going to learn that the Library of Michigan holds a microfilm index to the 1855 state census of -- Illinois?

Chicago Genealogist, Winter 2007-2008

In the new issue of Chicago Genealogist we find...

"Baptisms in St. James' Catholic Church Register of Confederate Soldiers Interred at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois," submitted by Jeanne Larzalere Bloom and Barbara Baker. (This is quite a find; I just hope Confederate researchers don't get worn out before they think to look in Chicago!)

"Lewis-Champlin School Class of June, 1913, Graduating Exercises," submitted by Doris Carlson Sterm

"Hyde Park High School, 'Aitchpe' Yearbook 1934-1935," all classes, submitted by Joseph L. Rhodes

"Using Coroner's Records," by Mary Penner

"City of Chicago Ordinance 1861, Prohibiting Bathing in the Lake," submitted by Helen Sclair

Wisconsin wants your tired, your poor ancestors yearning to be documented

New issues of the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Newsletter are coming thick and fast these days as new editor David McDonald, CG, gets the publication calendar caught up to the real calendar. (We just did October last week!)

Contents of the January issue are below. But for those who dream of writing for such publications as well as reading them, there's even better news. McDonald writes,

"This editor is also seeking well-written and appropriately documented family genealogies for Wisconsin-connected clans. Sadly, many journals and publications have stopped publishing such pieces. Examples of good research and writing (and editing!) can help everyone be and become better genealogists. Especially welcome would be pieces highlighting various ethnic and religious groups groups among the mid-19th Century migrants to Wisconsin, as well as those tied to colonial-era families.... They may have made homebrew or been teetotalers, played pinochle or bridge. So long as they have Wisconsin connections, they have a story worth telling."

Meanwhile, in the January issue:

Research Policies at the Wisconsin Vital Records Office, by Roland K. Littlewood

Women's Club of Eau Claire, 1899

"Slacker" Lists from World War I (continued)

Wisconsinites on the Federal Payroll (as of 21 Mar 1880) (continued)

Portage County, Carson Township, St. Barthlemew [sic] Cemetery

Portage County, Dewey Township, Torun Cemetery

Waushara County, Poy Sippi Township, Poy Sippi Cemetery, all read by Wayne and Alta Guyant in the 1970s