Compiled Records for Mid-South Research: Difference between revisions

Another good online site for compiled records is provided by Ancestry.com. It is called ''Ancestry World Tree'' and contains nearly 400 million names in family trees submitted by users of this site. A search of this site confirmed that they are many submitted records for those individuals from the mid-southern states. Ancestry World Tree is the largest collection of its kind on the Internet. However, it is important to note that this site states the following: ''Ancestry World Tree ''GEDCOM files are voluntarily submitted by Ancestry users like yourself. We take all files "as is" and cannot guarantee the completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of the information contained in this database. [https://www.familysearch.org/#_ftn2 [2]] As was stated above, compiled records are not proven records. It is our responsibility to take this information and verify the accuracy of what we choose to use in our research.  

The ''Southern States Courier'' (Natchitoches, Louisiana: Courier Publications, 1984-1986) is a periodical exploring the history and records of the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and possibly others. Information is extracted from biographies, cemetery records, census, church records, deeds and land records, maps, marriage records, military records, mortuaries, naturalizations, obituaries, post office records, school records, vital records, wills, and other sources. Some family names and persons are featured. There are interspersed within these publications, family histories. There is no index but PERSI discloses the titles of the articles in each issue, referring to which parish and record-types are included. Time period covered is roughly from the 1700’s-1900.  

An example of a publication specific to an ethnic group is ''The Italians in Missouri'', by G., Schiavo (New York: Arno Press, Inc., 1975, c 1929). It is a “scrapbook” biographical publication. The biographies are small and all come with a picture of the individual. Most of the biographies appear to be of professionals and businessmen.

''History of South Carolina'' (Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1920) edited by Yates Snowden, comprises five volumes. Like most of history books, the biographies of individuals who paid to be included in the publications are given a page or two to give a brief history of themselves and sometimes their families. Fortunately, there is an index, because the biographies have no certain order to them.  

There are also many publications of compiled records written for various religious groups. The ''Brief Baptist Biographies'' by Robert P Hamby (Greenville, South Carolina: A Press, 1982- ) is one example. This book is divided up into 5 divisions. The third division is title “Brief Historical Sketches of Twenty-one Baptist Associations from 1707 to 1861 Which Have Made Their Contribution to Western North Carolina," which is a compilation of historical sketches, and there are also biographical sketches found within the other divisions.  

''The Carolina Herald and Newsletter'', which is an official publication of the South Carolina Genealogical Society and published quarterly, is another periodical worth searching through. Some of the editions do contain individual biographies and family histories, although there appears to be more abstracted and copied records. There is no indexing.

In a book written by Worth S. Ray, called ''Tennessee Cousins'' (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1960) the author has done a wonderful job of writing a history of the some of the counties of Tennessee and the people, by using original sources, and evaluating them so that he has written personal histories on many of the individuals who lived there. The use of the index is imperative as the family histories are not in any logical order and are interspersed with abstracted records.  

When narrowing your research to specific counties within a state, you will often find compiled records in publications that have been written by genealogical or historical societies. These books were often written for a specific historical event, such as a centennial. A good example of this is, ''Families and History of Sullivan County, Tennessee'' ''Volume One 1779-1992'', compiled by the Holston Territory Genealogical Society, 1993. It is a collection of stories submitted by residents, former, residents, and those having roots in Sullivan County. The bios run a quarter to half page in length. There is a surname index, and the bios are in alphabetical order. They are a great tool for finding genealogical information.  

A researcher can, also, get very specific. Take for instance ''Tennessee Convicts: Early Records of the State Penitentiary'' by Charles A. and Tomye M. Sherrill. This book includes an index of places (vol. 1) and full-name indexes (vols. 1 & 2). Volume 1 covers the years 1831-1850 and volume 2 the years 1850-1870. Volume 1 might be of particular interest since it was transcribed from Volume 45 of the Tennessee State Penitentiary and in this particular volume are detailed descriptions and biographies of 600 inmates from 1831-1842.  

Ransom B. True, ''Biographical Dictionary of Early Virginia, 1607-1660''. (Richmond Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1984). Record is in alphabetical order by surname and then by given name or title. It gives the name, title, event, date and place of event, source code and page number. There is often more than one event for each name and each event is listed with its source code and page number under the name.  

''Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography'' by Lyon Gardiner Tyler {{FHL|68071|item|disp=FHL book 975.5 D3tL, 5 vols.}} (New York: Lewis Historical Pub., 1915). Includes multi-generation family histories. The first three volumes contain a small paragraph of some of the founders, colonial presidents and governors, colonial councilors of state, and burgesses, those elected to political positions and other prominent persons and their involvement in the political climate of Virginia. There is contained in some these short bios more personal information about the individuals, so they are worth a search. The last two volumes of this series are biographies of prominent people who lived in Virginia at one time or another. An index is included in the volume five, but it is not an every name index. ''

Since slavery was well established in Virginia pre Civil War, the use of compiled regarding these people may be very useful in doing Virginia research. ''Weevils in the Wheat; Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves,'' edited by Charles L. Perdue, Jr., Thomas E. Barden, and Robert K. Phillips, is an interesting book. It is a compilation of interviews of ex-slaves from the state of Virginia.  

R. A. Brock Alonzo and Virgil A. Lewis, ''Virginia and Virginians'', Salt Lake City Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah 1972 [Microfilm of original published: Richmond and Toledo: H. H. Hardesty, 1888] Lists five to ten prominent citizens from each county with early governors and generals. It includes genealogical data abstracted from the 6 volume set, History of Virginia. It is an index to the biographical volumes of that history.

A researcher will find that often when researching in West Virginia they will be consulting Virginia sources; however, there are still some very good publications that deal primarily with those individuals living in West Virginia. A couple of these publications are: Thomas Condit Miller and Hu Maxwell, ''West Virginia and Its People,'' 3 vols. (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1913). The first volume is devoted to the history of West Virginia and the remaining two volumes are family and personal histories. These histories are usually about one to two pages in length, but the information contained within these personal histories is invaluable. There is an index, but it only names the person for which the personal history was written. Another is James Morton Callahan’s ''History of West Virginia Old and New and West Virginia Biography'', 3 vols. (Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1923). Again the two last volumes are dedicated to a compilation of biographies. This publication was written latter than the previous mention book, so it gives you a few more years of information and does contain biographies on quite a few more people.