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(More customer reviews)Perhaps 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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