FRPC GENEALOGY NEWSLETTER – Vol. 1 #3 – August 20, 2009 – Knowing the County Boundary Changes Can be the Key to Your Success.

FRPC GENEALOGY NEWSLETTER – Vol. 1 #3 – August 20, 2009 – Knowing the County Boundary Changes Can be the Key to Your Success.

This is the third newsletter published by Family Roots Publishing. Enjoy!

The FREE FRPC Genealogy Newsletter (FRPC standing for Family Roots Publishing Company) contains genealogy-related tips, news, links, and product information. This is an “opt-in” newsletter. You are receiving it because you may have signed up for it at the Family Roots Publishing Company home page (upper left-hand corner), and/or purchased product from Family Roots Publishing Company recently.

COUNTY BOUNDARY CHANGES AND YOUR RESEARCH
As America expanded, and grew in both size and population, the principle record-producing jurisdictions, the U.S. counties, also grew in population, making the adjustment to smaller counties necessary. Changes in the boundaries were the norm, and not the exception for many years. Today the boundaries have pretty-well stabilized, but this wasn’t the case for many states up until about 1920. It was possible for a family to live in one place, never moving as much as 20 feet, but that family could well have lived in three, four, and maybe five or more counties. I remember hearing a story years ago about one family who lived in Oregon, never moving, but living in seven different counties. Now that’s an extreme example, but it proves the point that when doing genealogy research, we must often search the records of a number of counties to locate those of our ancestors. All the Federal Census records (1790-1930) and many state censuses are now online, and using name searches alone, we’re often able to find family members in a matter of minutes. Now and then we find these folks living in counties that may have been adjacent to, or nearby the county where we had expected to locate them. This is often due to nothing more than changes in the county boundaries.

By knowing what counties our ancestors lived in, we know where to look for not only those online census records, but all kinds of other records that may not be online. There are many records that we still can only access by searching through microfilm from the Family History Library, an archives, or the county courthouse itself.

Thorndale and Dollarhide produced a series of 50 maps showing the county boundary changes as they were on the Federal decennial census years – 1790 through 1920. The maps were produced over a period of years and sold in Map Guide Packets. Eventually the maps were compiled into the best-selling Genealogy volume, Map guide to the U.S. Censuses 1790-1920. The book is now out of print. However, Family Roots Publishing has just finished getting all the Map Packets (many out-of-print for years) back into print and available at the FRPC website. You’ll find them in Alphabetical order within the “Atlases and Maps” section (see: http://www.familyrootspublishing.com/store/category.php?cat=atlases%20and%20maps ), starting with Alabama at the bottom of the first page. Direct links to these map packets are found in this newsletter’s FEATURED PRODUCTS AT FRPC section below. To encourage immediate sale of the Map Packets, purchase any 4 or more Map Packets (selling at $6.92 each including postage), and we will ship you a free packet of “United States – State Boundaries 1790-1920 Map Packet.” This packet is made up of 10 maps, 3-hole punched and printed on white card stock. To take advantage of this offer, just type “Newsletter 1-3” in the “Order Notes” on checkout with your purchase of 4 Map Packets or more at the FRPC website. Visa and MC are accepted. Read more about the “United States – State Boundaries 1790-1920 Map Packet” at: http://www.familyrootspublishing.com/store/product_view.php?id=396

MAP GUIDE TO GERMAN PARISH REGISTERS FOR THURINGIA AND KINDOM OF SAXONY ARE NOW AT THE FAMILY ROOTS PUBLISHING COMPANY WEBSITE
Over the last couple of months, we have published two new volumes of the Map Guide to German Parish Registers series. Volume 24 covers the Thuringian States, and Volume 25 covers about half of the Kingdom of Saxony (Zwickau & Leipzig). These volumes are now posted at the FRPC website. See:
Thuringia – Volume 24 – Soft Cover http://www.familyrootspublishing.com/store/product_view.php?id=278
Thuringia – volume 24 – Hard Cover http://www.familyrootspublishing.com/store/product_view.php?id=305
Kingdom of Saxony I – Volume 25 – Soft Cover http://www.familyrootspublishing.com/store/product_view.php?id=306
Kingdom of Saxony I – Volume 25 – Hard Cover http://www.familyrootspublishing.com/store/product_view.php?id=398

NEWS
Don’t Expect The Genealogical Helper to Reemerge – See: http://www.genealogyblog.com/?p=5679
Tina Sansone Reviews Dollarhide’s Genealogical Resources of the Civil War Era.” See: http://www.familyrootspublishing.com/store/product_view.php?id=306
Surname Distribution Maps for the USA, Canada, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, & Switzerland on dynastree (complete with direct links to the maps for the various countries) See: http://www.genealogyblog.com/?p=5566
StoryCorps is coming to the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference – See: http://www.genealogyblog.com/?p=5660
Join us at the 2010 Virginia Beach Genealogical Society Conference – See: http://www.genealogyblog.com/?p=5669
Ancestry to Provide High-speed Scanners to Attendees at the FGS Conference – See: http://www.genealogyblog.com/?p=5648

THE SALT LAKE CHRISTMAS TOUR
The Salt Lake Christmas Tour is known for having the highest ratio of consulting professional genealogists per attendee of any research tour to the Family History Library. Join us this year December 6 through 12, 2009. See: http://www.SaltLakeChristmasTour.com

ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
The newsletter is written by Leland K. Meitzler, the publisher at FRPC. Leland is best known as the founder of Heritage Quest (in 1985), and his editorship of Heritage Quest Magazine (1985-2005), and Everton’s Genealogical Helper (2006-2009). Leland is also known as a genealogy lecturer with over 2,000 genealogy lectures to his credit.

CONTACT INFO:
Family Roots Publishing Company, PO Box 830, Bountiful, Utah 84011; Phone 801-992-3705; Fax: 815-642-0103; Cell: 801-949-7259; email: Lmeitzler@gmail.com; http://www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com ; http://www.GenealogyBlog.com ; http://www.Salt Lake ChristmasTour.com ; Written by Leland K. Meitzler; Owned by Leland & Patty Meitzler.

TO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS NEWSLETTER:
Go to http://www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com and type your email address in the “SIGNUP – Free Genealogy Newsletter” box in the upper right-hand corner.

TO UNSUBSCRIBE TO THIS NEWSLETTER:
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About Leland Meitzler

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