The following announcement was written by the American Society of Genealogists:
The 2006 Donald Lines Jacobus Award has been presented to Richard H. Benson for The Read Family of Salem, Massachusetts. This book is an excellent example of what the careful family historian can produce. It is scholarly, yet at the same time reader-friendly account of descendants of Thomas Read, who was at Salem in 1636, for five generations. It then continues with separate sections on two of the descendants and on two probably unrelated men named William Read/Reed.
The Jacobus Award was established in 1972 to encourage sound scholarship in genealogical writing. It is presented to a model genealogical work published within the previous five years. The Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists nominate books which have come to their attention, often through reviews in genealogical journals, and at their annual meeting each year choose one to recommend as a good example that potential authors might emulate.
A list of books receiving the award in previous years appears on the ASG website, www.fasg.org. Anyone planning to publish their own research, especially as a compiled genealogy or family history, would do well to study the format and content of several of these works.
Published by the Newbury Street Press of the New England Historic Genealogical Society in 2005, The Read Family is 388 pages and sells for $40. For ordering information, see www.pictonpress.com, which handles sales for NEHGS.
