Maybe I'm a little obsessed with genealogy...but every morning I wake up and imagine the world of information that is waiting for me...and most of it is hiding in Google Books. Through Google Books we have this magical access to books that would never otherwise show up on our local library's shelves. Google Books are all about the possibilities and those possibilities are what open us up to the real stories behind our ancestors lives.
If you are not familiar with Google Books, go to Google and look to the right of the banner for "More." Under "More" you will find many different options. Choose "Books." It's that simple.
The secret behind Google Books is that it searches through the full text of books that Google has scanned. Several major research libraries are actively scanning their collections as a part of the Google Books Library Project. These are the materials that we access through Google Books.
I think I have found Google Books most useful for researching historical locations. Most of my family came from places that I have no personal knowledge of and our Local History Room doesn't contain information on these other localities either. This is where Google Books are so helpful. I have been able to reconstruct my ancestors' worlds by reading through these obscure local histories. If you're lucky you will find your ancestors in Google Books, too!
So what else is in Google Books? For historical researchers, there is nothing else like it. There are Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books, Biographical Encyclopedias, Genealogies, County Histories. Many of the books are quite old and sometimes that is very useful to a genealogist. It gives us a special view of a time period that is hard to capture otherwise.
The only problem with Google Books is that not all of the books are in their entirety. Books in the public domain are completely accessible. Some books are limited to a number of viewable pages. Some are "snippet" views and some are just a record. But don't let that frustrate you! If these books are what you want...let me know and I can see if the library can access it through an interlibrary loan. This happened to me recently. I found a book I felt was critical to my research of African American Slaves in Virginia. I found it in a preview format on Google Books. I was able to search through it and it was here that I found some very pertinent information. Unfortunately, it blocked me from total access. A print copy was listed as costing $135.00 on Amazon. When we searched for the title through WorldCat (the monster catalog of books and their availability in worldwide libraries) it was only available for interlibrary loan through the State University of New York at Binghamton Library. There was a cost (depends on the library)...but I have my very special book in my hands right now (and I have it until April 24...usually interlibrary loans allow for a longer borrowing period) and I am ready to go!
As for search strategies...again it's very simple. Use parentheses to group words together.
For example type in: "Donnelly" "Augusta County" "Virginia." Play with the words. Spell them different ways. A number of books will pop up. Some may be downloadable or viewable. Some are only available in “snippet”
format. Again...there will be books that show up that you can not read online. Don't worry. Just come to the Lewiston Public Library and we will try and get that book for you. Think of Google Books as a sort of Pathfinder to possible sources.
Play with Google Books—you will be
fascinated by what you find!
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