Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 222 pages
- Published by: California Genealogical Society June 1, 2006
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0967240980
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0967240985
-
Book Dimensions:
10.5 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
- Weighs: 1.1 pounds
Product Review
"A book of strategies Well researchedclearly writtenpacked with meaningful dataand rich illustrations" --
Curt Witcher, Historical Genealogy Department Manager, Allen County Public Library"Help has arrived" a better gold mine for genealogists than the one discovered in 1849 at Sutter’s Mill." --
― Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG, author The Family Tree Problem Solver: Proven Methods for Scaling the Inevitable Brick Wall"the best book available today on searching for elusive ancestors in San Francisco before 1906" --
Ralph J. Crandall, Executive Director Emeritus, New England Historic Genealogical Society
Product Description
Raking the Ashes, a research book of interest to anyone doing California and San Francisco genealogy, has just been released and is available from the California Genealogical Society.
Author Nancy Simons Peterson painstakingly pursued the trail of clues in available records to search for great-great grandpa and subsequently conducted a comprehensive survey of San Francisco's extant sources and records lost.
Raking the Ashes
§ Specifies which records were lost in 1906, which survived, and where to find them.
§ Suggests strategies for dealing with record losses wherever they occur.
§ Features clear evaluations of sources.
§ Shows how to overcome genealogical stumbling blocks and avoid common pitfalls.
§ Costs less than the price of an hour of professional research assistance.
Reader ReviewsPerhaps nothing is more frustrating for a family history researcher than contending with the destruction of records. Historic disasters were devastating to our ancestors & were not kind to the records we depend on to trace our families either. With this year's centennial anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake & fire, the California Genealogical Society has published Nancy Peterson's timely "Raking the Ashes: Genealogical Strategies for Pre-1906 San Francisco Research". "Raking the Ashes" is an exceptional how-to guide for overcoming the record losses from the great San Francisco earthquake & fire. The 222-page volume is a treasure trove of concise information with all of the "good stuff" easily accessible for the researcher. The accompanying 44 maps, photos & illustrations provide excellent visual examples of the records discussed in the adjacent text. The book's expertly written advice provides the following for San Francisco records with genealogical value: * definitions of records (why they were made); * survival of the records during & after the quake and fire of 1906; * informational value of the records (what they contain); * exactly how & where to locate these records (available locally, via the Family History Library, the Internet, etc. - all with exact reference numbers or web addresses). An extremely valuable section of the book is the "Research Techniques, Tips & Cautions" where the author shares her vast experience of research successes and potential problems to help the reader jump-start their own research. For those who do not have research in San Francisco, "Raking the Ashes" provides an ideal outline for how to go about dealing with records destruction in any locality. If you have a "burnt county" or similar losses of historic records in your research, this book can act as a guide to other records which may have survived. Use the book's inventory of San Francisco-specific records as a checklist for finding the surviving records in the locality you are researching. The author, Nancy Peterson, is an outstanding writer & expert genealogist. She has won the prestigious National Genealogical Society's Family History Writing Contest. She has had her numerous scholarly & general interest articles published in a variety of prominent genealogy periodicals. "Raking the Ashes" is an extremely useful research guide and an outstanding example of good genealogical writing.
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