
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):This is the book Ol' Myrt recommends for entries listed by state, then county.
- 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.
Bibliography of American County Histories First Edition by P. William FilbyIf you cannot view the embedded video on your device, use this link:
https://youtu.be/Z8n-w1sr8s4
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TYPED CHAT LOG19:00:27 From Cousin Russ to Everyone : We will start in a moment19:02:27 From Michelle Grant to All panelists : Good evening from Omaha, NE19:02:37 From Betty-Lu Burton to Everyone : Yeah I remember what day it is19:02:38 From Michelle Grant to Everyone : Hello everyone19:02:41 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 Iowa19:02:59 From Sheri Snodgrass to Everyone : Hello from Iowa19:03:06 From Pat Jackson to Everyone : Hi from Bardstown, Kentucky!19:03:07 From Myra Lindgren to Everyone : Good evening everyone19:03:12 From Flo Merritt to All panelists : Hello, Hello19:03:21 From carencay bowen to Everyone : Good Evening from City of Baltimore, Maryland, USA19:03:35 From Greg Nordlund to All panelists : HI from Olympia, WA. First time here.19:03:40 From Kathleen Daetsch to Everyone : gOOD EVENING19:03:50 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 C19:04:48 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, Ohio19:05:09 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,Pa19:06:40 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 line19:07:42 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 records19:08:58 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/080631126619:09:51 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/86579993019:11:15 From Dave Robison to All panelists : That's the Judd Manuscript19:11:33 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 parents19:34:17 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 end19:34:30 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 course19:39:37 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 Jameson19:47:22 From Sheri Snodgrass to Everyone : The picture is on page 491 - available on Google Books.19:49:12 From Sheri Snodgrass to Everyone : https://www.google.com/books/edition/Pioneers_and_Prominent_Men_of_Utah/q0FEAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=wasden19:50:57 From Sheri Snodgrass to All panelists : I put the link to the book in chat19:51:03 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 view19:56:01 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 191319:59:48 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 volume20:03:59 From Kathleen Daetsch to Everyone : me too double20:04:53 From Myra Lindgren to Everyone : Good evening everyone - have a great week!20:06:03 From Kathleen Daetsch to Everyone : Yes I remember that20:06:12 From Betty-Lu Burton to Everyone : Stay warm20:06:52 From Kathleen Daetsch to Everyone : It is getting warmer20:07:06 From Dave McDonald to All panelists : well done20:07:21 From Tami Crandall to All panelists : Thanks!20:07:27 From Dave McDonald to All panelists : cheers20:07:30 From Kathleen Daetsch to Everyone : Good night20:08:34 From Kathleen Daetsch to Everyone : yes
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