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 My great-great-grandparents John and Mary (Kenneally) Phelan
 My grandmother Maria and her younger sister Paloma Starcz (Startz)
 My grandfather Clement Phelan
Another Great Episode! Though the episode didn’t really focus much on genealogy, it was very heavy on family history, which is great. I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, names and dates don’t mean much unless you have a story to go with it.
I’ve really enjoyed watching these shows every Friday. It has turned into a date night with my wife and she is taking a slight interest in them as well, which is nice. She has even expressed a desire to trace her own family history. I say if it gets people involved in genealogy it is a success. So far, so good!
 My great grandfather John C. Phelan in Anamosa, Iowa in his general store.
In this second part of this series, I am going to delve into the sale of digital books that are in the public domain on the Internet. There are thousands of these books available on Ebay and other sites.
Some of these books are very old and rare in print. It would be nearly impossible to acquire these books on any reasonable budget. Digitization has allowed a level playing field in regard to these works.
There is a questionable side to this issue, however. In searching Ebay for genealogical books, I came across dozens of ebooks that are freely available for download on Google Books. I will not be providing links to the Ebay items, as I think they are a rip-off, but here are some examples.
- Irish Pedigrees: Or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation – Vol 1&2 – $12.49 on Ebay or Free on Google Books
- A History of Swan’s Island, Maine – $9.99 on Ebay, or free on Google Books
- The Colonial History of Hartford – $5.99 on Ebay, or Free on Google Books
Ok, the list could go on for a very long time, but let’s just leave it here with the gentle reminder to check Google Books before buying an ebook online if the book is in the public domain. People are obviously making a killing by scanning books in the public domain and selling the digital versions. Most of these books are available for download for free on Google Books. Don’t be duped!
This is not to say that there are no good genealogical books for sale on Ebay or elsewhere. Recently published books, or those that are very rare might be a good buy for the genealogist with a need for them. Of course there is some benefit to actually being able to read a paper version of a book, so though the book might be free online, reading it from a physical book might be better for some people. The bottom line, however, as with all things genealogy, is “Check every available resource”.
Other articles in this series on Buying your family history:
Family Bibles on Ebay
Tonight’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are was great! The tone of this episode was drastically different than last week’s show. Here are my initial thoughts of the show, in no particular order:
- The focus of this episode was entirely on one part of American history. While it was interesting how Sarah Jessica Parkier’s family was involved in the Gold Rush AND the Salem Witch Trials, I think it was effective to focus on just a single topic as they did this week with slavery.
- The scene where Emmitt learns about his white slave-owning ancestor was particularly moving. It must have been very emotional for Emmitt to learn that his own ancestor not only bought and sold slaves, but that he was likely a direct result of that ancestor raping a slave. I thought it was great how at the moment Emmitt learned this and showed such visible scorn for that man, he also realized that man was a part of who he is.
- It was interesting to learn of Emmitt’s Native American and European ancestry.
- It was cool to see Megan Smolenyak on Primetime National TV.
- I didn’t like how there was no direct evidence to link Emmitt’s ancestry back to a particular place in Africa. This is the sad case for so many African-Americans, and it really is heart-breaking that they will never be able to trace their roots back to their ancestral homelands in Africa.
- Finally, the tragic story of slavery presented in this episode made for better pure family history than last week, where it was more about linking SJP’s line to significant events. While finding links like SJP did is definately fun and exhilirating, learning of the difficulites of our ancestors provides a deeper, more human touch. Maybe it is just me, but I find tragedy more compelling than triumph.
 My grandfather Johann (John) Frank
Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings just wrote about the questions on the 2010 Census. He points out:
Unfortunately for late 21st and 22nd century genealogists, there are no questions about relationships of people living in the household, marital status, birth place, or citizenship status. Too bad. You would think that the government would like to know about these issues.
This made me think of a few other questions I have found helpful on past census forms. Here are my thoughts on these missing questions and some others which are not included on this year’s form, and would have provided valuable clues for genealogists in the future:
- Relationships between household members – I’ve seen many ancestors that were living with their cousins. This omission will be especially frustrating when the cousins share a surname.
- Marital Status – with so many people cohabitating, it will be difficult to find marriage records. People might spend unnecessary time searching for records that do not exist (if the couple never ties the knot).
- Age at first marriage – this was helpful in tracking down multiple marriages.
- Birthplace of Mother and Father – I’ve used this one a lot, especially for my constantly resettling ancestors. Sometimes these ancestors have common names, so providing mother’s and father’s birthplace has allowed me to differentiate between 2 Bob Smiths in the same town, especially since answers to the age question are so often unreliable.
- Person 1’s birth place – Are you serious? It will be much harder to track down birth certificates without listing the place of birth.
- Citizenship Status/year of immigration – Finding immigration and naturalization records will be made more difficult by this omission.
- Value of property/rent paid – this question gave valuable insights into the relative wealth of our ancestors. Though it likely won’t be too sorely missed, it was a nice little bit of info.
- Occupation – again, though it wasn’t a crucial data point, it did help identify possible sources for other records relating to employment.
- Number of Children/Number still living – this was a great way to track down children who died in their youth.
- Military Service – it would have been nice to have this information on the census to help with finding military documentation.
If I was running the census, question 11 would be to provide a 5-generation pedigree chart for each person and question 12 would be to list the locations and dates for which all vital records can be found.
That’s it! I’m calling the census bureau to get this thing changed. Who’s with me?
Any serious genealogist would be well-advised to search every available source for the records of their ancestors. A surprisingly good source for family history materials is EBay. (Now before I go any further, let me just say that I have no connection to EBay other than making a few sporadic purchases over the past couple of years.) There are hundreds of sources from vital record indexes and published family genealogies to CDs and DVDs with dozens of eBooks on them. In this series, I am going to be outlining some of the interesting and useful as well as the useless and shameful items available for purchase.
One interesting category is old family bibles. Did you know that there are hundreds of Family Bibles on EBay? People sell them at garage sales and clever EBayers pick them up and flip them for a profit. I was able to find bibles ranging from the 1600’s all the way up to current times, containing various records or family vitals and important events. Prices ranged from $49,999 for a bible that supposedly belonged to Governor John Motley Morehead of North Carolina to just a few dollars for less notable families.
What an amazing thought – that after decades or even centuries in the hands of someone who didn’t know the value or didn’t care, these priceless keepsakes could be bought by a family historian with a connection to the family recorded on those pages. I think in a way, this is a great use of the technology available to provide one-of-a-kind items such as these bibles. On the other hand, it seems strange that people would seek to profit from items that held personal significance to someone else, but that is just my 2 cents.
If you do decide to purchase a family bible on EBay, be sure to watch for signs of forgery – such as names written in an old bible with a ball-point pen, which wasn’t invented until 1938. I would also be relatively skeptical of family bibles of famous and historically important figures.
The final point I want to make here is that of value. How can you accurately value something that is important to only a small section of the population – namely the descendents of the bible’s owners, but of little importance to everybody else? I would generally avoid selling items like this on EBay, as for me, it would seem like a form of (dare I say it?) blackmail. If the bible had little significance to me, but great significance to someone related to the original owners, I wouldn’t feel right selling it for a high price, but that is just me.
What do you think about buying/selling family bibles on EBay?
Other articles in this series on Buying your family history:
Public Domain Books
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