The Genealogy Sourcebook

by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack

Explains how to use available sources and resources to trace one's lineage, offering actual case studes to demonstrate how the research is conducted and organized

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Sharon DeBartolo Carmack has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing and postgraduate coursework in American History. She is a thirty-five-year veteran Certified Genealogist®, Retired (2024).

Sharon is the best-selling author of twenty-nine books, including Madame Restell: The True Story of New City’s Most Notorious Abortionist, Her Early Life, Family, and Murder; In Search of Maria B. Hayden: The American Medium Who Brought Spiritualism to the U.K.; and If We Can Winter This: Essays and Genealogies: The Gordon Family of County Leitrim, Ireland, and The Norris Family of County Tyrone, (now) Northern Ireland.

A few of her guidebooks include Telling Her Story: A Guide to Researching and Writing about Women of the Past; Tell It Short: A Guide to Writing Your Family History in Brief, 2nd ed., and You Can Write Your Family History. Sharon is part of the English adjunct faculty for Southern New Hampshire University and the genealogy faculty for Salt Lake Community College.

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first 15 or so pages were a little slow-going and although I knew there was going to be a plethora of useful information, I was afraid it was going to take forever to trudge through the book. Around page 20 or so, I was pleasantly surprised, as there seemed to be more and more useful information, and the writing style kept me very much engaged and found myself trying to sneak in a couple pages here and a couple pages there.... with a toddler, there is no longer such a thing as "I couldn't put it down" so this is about as good as it gets!

I had borrowed this book from the library, but by about page 60 I realized that just borrowing it wasn't going to be sufficient, this is the sort of book I need in my personal library, so I will be purchasing this book very soon. Although it was written about 20 years ago and many of the websites have changed, I found most of the info to still be applicable, even if I do have to search for the current link. The genealogy community would definitely benefit from an updated version of this book.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another must have for genealogists.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outdated but still had nuggets of information that were useful.