Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette 

PERSI-A GENEALOGICAL DIVINING ROD

 While there are thousands and thousands of great books and websites worth perusing, researchers wishing to find genealogical paydirt are missing the boat if they are not using genealogical and historical quarterlies and journals in their research strategies.

  Genealogical periodicals contain long, short and serialized articles on all aspects of research methodology, locality information and family surname histories. Beginning in 1986 ACPL, the Allen County Public Library of Fort Wayne, Indiana began indexing in a database format the table of contents of several thousand periodicals pertinent to genealogical research. Their database has continued to the present time and currently comprehensively catalogues over 5500 different periodical titles.

 ACPL's publication, PERSI, which stands for Periodical Source Index, began as a large four volume set of books cataloguing  genealogical articles published in the mid 1980's. It was later expanded to include articles on ACPL's shelves that were published between 1847 and 1985. Today PERSI has grown to include over 32 printed volumes containing far too many catalogued articles to economically be printed and made affordable to the nation's many genealogical libraries.

 In 1998 ACPL and Ancestry.Com agreed to place PERSI on Ancestry.Com's website at http://ancestry.com where it is available on a paid subscription basis. Ancestry.Com also made PERSI available for purchase in CD-ROM format. Houstonians are lucky because Clayton Library has a membership subscription to the Ancestry website and may view PERSI free of charge on the library's in-house computer system.

 Using PERSI is like using a genealogical diving rod. One may conduct database searches in periodicals published about cities, counties and other localities of the United States and Canada as well as foreign countries. One may search by keyword, by title of an article, by family surname or by location and record type.

 When searching by locality and record type one will find articles published on all types of records including: biographies, cemeteries, censuses, church records, court records, deeds and land records, directories, history, institutions, maps, military records, naturalizations, obituaries, passenger records, vital records, such as birth and death records, wills, probate, tax and voter records.

 The search results will reveal the name of an article, the name, date, volume and issue of the periodical where the article was published. In addition the database will give the address of the publication and the names of several libraries known to hold copies of the publication.

 Researchers in the Houston area have two libraries likely to have articles named in the results of a PERSI search. The first is the Clayton Library at 5300 Caroline in the Museum District and the second is the Montgomery County Library at 100 Interstate 45 North in Conroe. The periodical collections of both libraries complement one another. Each library has periodicals not owned by the other.

 Researchers utilizing PERSI wisely will reap rewards they previously considered unattainable.

BEGINNING GENEALOGY CLASS

 Paula Perkins Parke will teach a Beginning Genealogy Class at Grace Presbyterian Church, 10221 Ella Lee near the Sam Houston Tollway. The two part class will be held on Thursday February 15 from 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. The last class session will consist of a tour and hands-on census work at Clayton Library the following week.

 To enroll or to learn more about this class, contact Michelle Shultz at the Grace Presbyterian Education office 713-267-5020.

SEMINAR IN BRYAN

 The Texas Research Ramblers of Bryan will host their annual seminar on Saturday 17 February from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. The seminar will be held at the Sam Rayburn Middle School located on the feeder road just north of the Booneville exit of Highway 6 North in Bryan.

 Nationally known lecturer, Lloyd Bockstruck of the Dallas Public Library will be the featured speaker. His topics will include; "Identifying Maiden Names of Females"; "Finding Substitutes for Birth and Death Records"; "Researching Pennsylvania"; "Researching: The Plains, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma  & Texas".

 For more information contact the society at 8502 Amethyst Court, College Station, TX 77845-5539 or contact Kim Feldman by telephone at 979-693-5516 or by e-mail at feldman@tca.net. The society also has a website located at http://www2.txcyber.com/~ramblers/

NEWS FROM THE BOOKSHELF

 PERSI on CD-ROM is available for $99.95 (plus tax and shipping)  from Ancestry.Com's regional representative, Paula Perkins Parke. She may be reached at P.O. Box 842052 Houston, TX 77284-2052 or by calling 281-550-7935.Aj