Wednesday, February 03, 2021

WACKY Wednesday: Mug Books - County Histories



DearREADERS,
US county histories, commonly known as mug books, were typically compiled between 1880 and 1910 when the nation was beginning to realize they were losing their Civil War soldiers, and founders of townships here and there across our great land. 
Attendee Tami Crandall writes "While these histories are subject to the mistakes of all stories told from memory and family records, and there are some inconsistencies. They contain clues about where to search." 
Quite true - these are authored works, not official church or government records. Individuals would pay to have their short bio and a photograph included in these large tomes. We use these write-ups as clues to other record sets that could provide primary information leading to direct evidence of our ancestor's life in that locality.

These county history books also briefly summarize info about the early towns, land features, agricultural products throughout the decades since settlement, etc. You'll find info about migrations into the area, oft times mentioning the focus ancestor's place of origin. More prominent land owners may have a sketch of their home and surrounding lands. I've found references to military service, participation in roadbuilding, establishment of a tavern at a crossroad, service in the territorial or state legislature and the like.
Attendee Melissa Barker  writes "One of my favorite mug books are the Goodspeed Histories. Westin A. Goodspeed was a successful Nashville, Tennessee publisher. Here is a great link from the Tennessee Encyclopedia about Westin A. Goodspeed and his "mug books". https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/goodspeed-histories/
In this webinar we found "mug books" or mugbooks worked for a Google Search, as does the phrase county history. We demonstrated several online repositories for digital books to compare internal search engines, and navigation throughout the book.
  • Ancestry.com
  • Archive.org
  • FamilySearch.org
  • Google Books
  • a university archives
Best practices would suggest saving a copy of the page(s):
  • mentioning your ancestor
  • title page including copyright
  • front matter for abbreviations I can never remember these without the list.
  • table of contents As research progresses, you'll need to study some other townships the county.
  • the forward, mentioning the scope and limitation of the work from the compiler's perspective.
This is the book Ol' Myrt recommends for entries listed by state, then county.


If you cannot view the embedded video on your device, use this link:
https://youtu.be/Z8n-w1sr8s4
SD quality is available immediately. HD and CC will follow, usually within the hour.



If you value the interactive genealogy and journaling education provided in DearMYRTLE webinars, meetings, and videos, please consider donating. Thank you in advance. 
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TYPED CHAT LOG
19:00:27 From  Cousin Russ  to  Everyone : We will start in a moment
19:02:27 From  Michelle Grant  to  All panelists : Good evening from Omaha, NE
19:02:37 From  Betty-Lu Burton  to  Everyone : Yeah I remember what day it is
19:02:38 From  Michelle Grant  to  Everyone : Hello everyone
19:02:41 From  Melissa Barker  to  Everyone : Hello Everyone! The Archive Lady is in the house! Haven't been here in awhile.
19:02:49 From  Sheri Snodgrass  to  All panelists : Hello from Iowa
19:02:59 From  Sheri Snodgrass  to  Everyone : Hello from Iowa
19:03:06 From  Pat Jackson  to  Everyone : Hi from Bardstown, Kentucky!
19:03:07 From  Myra Lindgren  to  Everyone : Good evening everyone
19:03:12 From  Flo Merritt  to  All panelists : Hello, Hello
19:03:21 From  carencay bowen  to  Everyone : Good Evening from City of Baltimore, Maryland, USA
19:03:35 From  Greg Nordlund  to  All panelists : HI from Olympia, WA. First time here.
19:03:40 From  Kathleen Daetsch  to  Everyone : gOOD EVENING
19:03:50 From  Susan Ennis  to  All panelists : Hello from Western Pennsylvania!  Glad to be here.
19:04:20 From  Betty-Lu Burton  to  Everyone : Melissa I had a similar problem that you had with the student not able to read handwriting. I am having problems reading the capital T in the Italian records. It looks a lot like a capital C
19:04:48 From  Melinda Culpon  to  All panelists : Howdy from Texas!
19:04:50 From  Linda Stufflebean  to  Everyone : Hi from Tucson.
19:04:51 From  Lori Martin  to  Everyone : Hello from Willoughby, Ohio
19:05:09 From  Melissa Barker  to  Everyone : Betty-Lu, I have trouble with other languages too but I am pretty good with English cursive.
19:05:48 From  Pat Mickel  to  All panelists : Hi from Erie,Pa  
19:06:40 From  Dave Robison  to  All panelists : I used "Mug Books" with quotes and came up with some good results. only 34,500 results!
19:07:39 From  Betty-Lu Burton  to  Everyone : So am I, fairly good with English, but every now and then I have problems with the Italian and I am sure I will have problems with the Norwegian when I get to that line
19:07:42 From  Myra Lindgren  to  Everyone : I was told to start with the newest census and work your way back and you will get used to the handwriting.  it helped with the Swedish documentation I was reading.
19:08:22 From  Betty-Lu Burton  to  Everyone : Myra the only records available are the Italian vital records
19:08:58 From  Myra Lindgren  to  Everyone : Might work with Italian - don't have any Italians in our clan.....
19:09:13 From  Cousin Russ  to  Everyone : Bibliography of American County Histories First Edition by P. William Filby  https://www.amazon.com/Bibliography-American-County-Histories/dp/0806311266
19:09:51 From  DearMYRTLE .  to  All panelists : https://archive.org/
19:09:53 From  Dorothy Oksner  to  Everyone : Santa Barbara County’s “mug books” are called Sheriff’s Arrest Records. We have them for 1900.
19:10:57 From  Dave Robison  to  All panelists : Not a Mug Book, but here's the link to the Worldcat entry, filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1958! https://www.worldcat.org/title/judd-manuscript-records-of-northampton-massachusetts-1661-1833/oclc/865799930
19:11:15 From  Dave Robison  to  All panelists : That's the Judd Manuscript
19:11:33 From  Dorothy Oksner  to  Everyone : But they are not called “mug books.” They have mug shots of the arrestee.
19:21:02 From  Melissa Barker  to  Everyone : One of my favorite mug books are the Goodspeed Histories. Westin A. Goodspeed was a successful Nashville, Tennessee publisher. Here is a great link from the Tennessee Encyclopedia about Westin A. Goodspeed and his "mug books". https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/goodspeed-histories/
19:27:14 From  Linda Stufflebean  to  Everyone : Goodspeed histories are terrific.
19:32:02 From  Betty-Lu Burton  to  Everyone : I have seen a biography of my great-grandparents in a county history. However I know something about its accuracy because their daughter, my aunt, provided the information. It tells the love story of her parents
19:34:17 From  Betty-Lu Burton  to  Everyone : I wonder if that book is only the first part of the alphabet, because F was so close to the end
19:34:30 From  Cousin Russ  to  Everyone : https://books.google.com/
19:35:52 From  Pat Mickel  to  All panelists : Not all people in the county are listed in the county history. 
19:38:32 From  Pat Jackson  to  Everyone : I need to look at that book, I bet there are plenty of Palmers in there (my mother’s maternal side)
19:38:34 From  Dave McDonald  to  All panelists : although we should check all the spellings, of course
19:39:37 From  Tami Crandall  to  All panelists : While these histories are subject to the mistakes of all stories told from memory and family records, and there are some inconsistencies, they contain clues about where to search.
19:42:27 From  Pat Jackson  to  Everyone : (Chester County)
19:42:34 From  Dave McDonald  to  All panelists : try Jameson
19:47:22 From  Sheri Snodgrass  to  Everyone : The picture is on page 491 - available on Google Books.
19:50:57 From  Sheri Snodgrass  to  All panelists : I put the link to the book in chat
19:51:03 From  Kathleen Daetsch  to  Everyone : In Greene county NY we have Beer's History of Greene County. Would that fall into this category?
19:53:35 From  Dave McDonald  to  All panelists : It's the current view
19:56:01 From  Sheri Snodgrass  to  All panelists : My link is for the book Vol. 2 of 2 - page 491 - a different edition holds the picture.
19:57:47 From  Dave McDonald  to  Everyone : On the corner by the Kimball...
19:59:02 From  Barry Wolff  to  All panelists : FYI, the version at Google books was published in 1966 and the Family Search/Internet Archive version was published in 1913
19:59:48 From  Sheri Snodgrass  to  Everyone : 3 Wasden pictures in the other edition.
20:00:04 From  Betty-Lu Burton  to  Everyone : And this one has only one volume
20:03:59 From  Kathleen Daetsch  to  Everyone : me too double
20:04:53 From  Myra Lindgren  to  Everyone : Good evening everyone - have a great week!
20:06:03 From  Kathleen Daetsch  to  Everyone : Yes I remember that
20:06:12 From  Betty-Lu Burton  to  Everyone : Stay warm
20:06:52 From  Kathleen Daetsch  to  Everyone : It is getting warmer
20:07:06 From  Dave McDonald  to  All panelists : well done
20:07:21 From  Tami Crandall  to  All panelists : Thanks!
20:07:27 From  Dave McDonald  to  All panelists : cheers
20:07:30 From  Kathleen Daetsch  to  Everyone : Good night
20:08:34 From  Kathleen Daetsch  to  Everyone : yes

 

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