Jack Simpson is well known in genealogy circles. He is the Curator of Local and Family History at the Newberry Library in Chicago and is a recognized genealogy expert. He also teaches Genealogy 101, an online course, through the American Library Association. He also recently released a book, Basics of Genealogy Reference. Now Jack has created a blog that will supplement the book with new material as it becomes available.
Jack writes, "I hope to use this blog to track changes in genealogy research since I completed my book and update my four case studies with new information."
Indeed, one of his first articles does just that. Here is an excerpt:
FamilySearch Labs
My book mentions FamilySearch Labs briefly, but it was just launching as I finished the book, so I didn't explore it in any depth. Essentially, FamilySearch Labs is the new suite of digital tools created by the Family History Library. Of particular interest to me is the Lab's Record Search tool. This is a new database of indexed primary documents; most of the documents are fully digitized. It's an amazing resource. It makes huge number of primary documents available, it's rich indexing allows complex searching, and it has a really appealing interface for viewing digitized documents. As a demonstration of it's usefulness, I'll run down some of the new information I gleaned about my four case studies using Record Search.
This is a great idea. I wish all the authors of genealogy books would do something similar: crete an online reference that supplements the book and adds new information as it becomes available.
You can read Jack Simpson's new "Basics of Genealogy Reference" blog at http://basicsofgenealogyreference.blogspot.com. While there, check out his book.
