Christine Rose has written a new book entitled Courthouse Indexes Illustrated. I have been doing genealogy research for years and thought I knew how to read an index. However, I must say that I learned a lot more by reading Christine's new book!
This slim, 58-page booklet describes the various kinds of indexes in great detail. One would think that an index was a simple list of words in alphabetical order. Not so!
For instance, I now know that the Graves Tabular Index is popular in certain states and that it lists names by the first three letters of the name, but in a manner that saves a lot of space on the printed page. I also learned that a Proceedings Index or Proceedings Docket is commonly used certain other states and involves the use of two books.
Christine Rose also explains the details of Russell Indexes, Graves Indexes, Campbell Indexes, Vowel Indexes, and more. One chapter is entitled Traditional Indexes and is the only chapter that I understood before reading this book. All the other chapters were news to me! Without this knowledge, I have probably overlooked genealogy information that was, in fact, already indexed and available to me.
Christine Rose is highly qualified to write this book. She is a Certified Genealogist, Certified Genealogical Lecturer, and a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists. She lectures frequently at national genealogy conferences and at many regional seminar and local seminars. She served on the faculty of the Institute of Genealogical Research in Washington, D.C., and has been on the faculty as an instructor and a coordinator of Samford University's Institute of Historical and Genealogical Research since 1992. Christine was elected Fellow, American Society of Genealogists, in 1988. She has also been awarded the prestigious Donald Lines Jacobus award for two Rose genealogies and received top reviews for the book she co-authored, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Genealogy.
Courthouse Indexes Illustrated is an excellent "how-to" book that will sharpen the research skills of most any genealogist. It sells for $9.95 plus postage. You can order Courthouse Indexes Illustrated online at http://www.christine4rose.com. Other bookstores should be able to order it for you if you specify ISBN 0-929626-17-6.
