About 25 years ago I bought the Sixth Edition of "The Handy Book for Genealogists" and found it to be an indispensable aid in my genealogy research. A friend mentioned that I should get the newest version because in many states there had been jurisdictional changes that weren't reflected in my old 1971 Edition. It's hard for me to change and the only way I can convince myself that a change is good is to analyze the advantages of embracing the new. I bought the 9th Edition of the "The Handy Book for Genealogists" published September 1999 by The Everton Publishers, Inc. of Logan, Utah and compared it to my old version and here is what I discovered.

First, let it be said that The first "Handy Book" was published in 1949 and that each time a new edition is released the publisher sends questionnaire letters to every county clerk, or other county official in charge of county records in the United States. The letter asks them to verify or correct the county information for their county that had been published in the previous edition of the "Handy Book". According to the "Foreword" in the book, 96% of the county officials responded to the questionnaire letters. Additional verifications are also made by phone. A huge amount of work has gone into keeping the data in each new edition accurate and up to date.

If I were to give a descriptive title to the "Handy Book", it would be: "Find the jurisdiction of your ancestor through time." For those of you new to genealogy a jurisdiction is a county, state, province, territory, and the like. Even if your ancestor had remained at the same location all of his life, his records may have been recorded in numerous jurisdictions depending on the changes in the boundaries of the jurisdiction where the old homestead was located.

A demonstration case would be:
Suppose your ancestor lived in Ford County Illinois and was 55 when he died in 1869. This would make his birth year about 1814. Tradition says he was born at or neat his place of death and you want to find any information about him that may exist in the county records. Checking the "Handy Book" you discover that Ford County, IL was formed in 1859 from Clark County, and Clark County was formed in 1819 from Crawford County, which was formed from Edwards County in 1816. In turn Edwards County was formed in 1814 from Madison and Gallatin Counties. It would be necessary to check the records for all of these counties to be sure you had found all the records available for this ancestor. The "Handy Book" makes it possible for you to discover which counties to research.

In comparing the 1971 edition to the 1999 edition of the "Handy Book", I found that both provided sufficient information on the formation of individual counties in every state and also a few countries to help you find when a certain county, state, or province was formed. This in turn helps you know where to look for an ancestor's records today. In the 1971 edition Everton includes some brief "Instructions on the Use of This Book". It's a pity they left this important feature out of the current book.

The addition of color maps at the back of the book which show the Territorial growth of the United States from 1725 to 1860, migration trails of US people as they moved from the east coast to the midwest, and railroads and highways of the 1850 & 1860 periods were interesting but really not necessary in helping find where the missing records of an ancestor may be.

A one page article in the 1999 edition gives a brief history of the formation of the United States and major events which influenced many jurisdictional changes. This was a very valuable addition to the book. The article gives the dates of many wars, date of the first census, and dates of legislation that encouraged migrations. Some population information is also given which gives one an appreciation of how quickly the United State has grown over time.

A brief survey of the types of records that are available through the Federal government follows the one page article. Once again the information included in this survey is an important addition and can point you to what records are kept by the Federal government and for what time periods.

Both editions give limited lists of Archives, Libraries, and Societies; and lists of printed Research Guides, record sources, and Histories for each state or jurisdiction. Only the 1999 edition provides a country wide list for the US. The 1999 edition wins hands down in this category. Addresses for most repositories have changed since 1971 and the 1999 edition includes many phone numbers which the 1971 edition did not have.

Though the forward of the 1999 edition mentions that it contains website addresses, I was not able to find many of them. This book is not a significant source of Internet website location information. It does point researchers to oft used and time honored printed sources that provide a plethora of genealogical data.

The book is mostly focused on the United States. There are however 19 countries included in the 1999 edition. Only 17 were in the 1971 addition. The majority of the book is dedicated to detailing jurisdictional and historical information about each county of each state in the US. This includes the county name, date created, parent county or territory from which it was organized, the address and phone number of the county seat, date when records were first kept in the county, type of record kept, and place where they were first kept. An example would be:

Kentucky County Data:

*Butler County, 110 N. Main St, Morgantown, KY 42261-0448 (502)526-5676
*(Co Clk has m & land rec from 1810; Clk Cir Ct has div & ct rec)

The 1971 edition also included the Population by 1960 and the dates of US Census reports available by county. Leaving this data out of the 1999 edition was not a great loss.

I was a bit disappointed in the maps in the 1999 edition. They were not as clear as the 1971 edition and did not include the names of the surrounding states as the 1971 edition had. The maps in both editions show the county boundaries and names. This includes the counties of bordering states.

As I mentioned earlier, data on other countries are included in the book. The 1999 edition has more genealogical research information than the 1971 for the 19 countries it lists. The countries listed are Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland. Though I would not consider the "Handy Book" a definitive source for research in any of these countries, the information that was provided would help a beginning researcher become aware of what research resources are available and in some cases how to obtain more help.

I'm glad I took my friend's suggestion and I plan to keep the 1999 edition and begin to use it in my research. If you are new to genealogy research the "Handy Book For Genealogists" is one of the more necessary resources to have on hand. It can save you an immense amount of time in locating ancestors and their records. I bought my copy at Amazon.com for $24.49 plus tax and shipping. Here is the link: The Handy Book For Genealogists published by The Everton Publishers, Inc..

Review written by Cindy Carman