Remember GPC...Genealogical Publishing Company?

 

Remember getting catalogs from Genealogical Publishing Company (based in Baltmore, Maryland)? I sure do..... sometimes I did order a book but more often I made note of a book pertinent to my research and would look for it next time at a big library. Maybe you did that too?  Well, GPC has morphed into My GPC Library and comes offering books to you in a brand new format: digitally. Click to www.genealogical.com to get all the info. But, bottom line, you'll have access to 800 books for a yearly subscription of $135, or for six months for $75, or for three months for $45.  (What a great idea for our long winter days, no?)

Before you read on, here's a warm fuzzy for you from EWGS member Rosemary Braun. She has a granddaughter born when her parents were in South America, and was named Xochitl....... "so-CHEE."  The name is Mayan and means "beautiful flower."  Rosemary assures us that she loves her name. 

Breakdown of the major categories:

• Industry leading how to books and manuals – an unsurpassed collection of more than 140 of our best titles that you cannot find anywhere else
• More than 375 genealogy books on colonial American families
• Over 239 books on New England or Mayflower genealogy
• Nearly 200 immigration titles covering Colonial America to about 1865
• Native American guides and records
• The best collection of titles on Royal and Noble genealogy
• More than 90 titles on Irish and Scottish genealogy
• Guidebooks for African American genealogy and records of families prior to 1870
• Nearly 800 titles in all, and growing

Remember Genealogical Publishing Company?

 

Now known as Genealogical.com, this genealogy-book-publishing company has been around for 65 years. I'll just bet you've ordered books more than once from GPC.

If you click to www.Genealogical.com, you'll be like the proverbial kid in a candy shop. So many books! TIP:  If you request their 35-page catalog (2022-2023), then you can browse, red pencil in hand, and start your own Wish List. 

Another TIP:  I find the catalog is handy especially when I begin to research in a new place for I can quickly find what are the major reference books for that place. TIP #2: take the catalog with you to Salt Lake or your favorite library. 

To show how "on the ball" this company is, one of their newest book offerings is Ukrainian Genealogy Research, by Vera Ivanova Miller. Published in 2021, cost is $10.95.  The description begins: "Because the borders of Ukraine shifted many times over the years, researching your Ukrainian ancestors can be challenging........ "

GPC offers How-To Books and Manuals, General Reference and Finding Aids, Heraldry and a long list of resource books for each state and many countries.  

Quoting an old TV commercial, I urge you "to try it, you'll like it!"  Whether Genealogical Publishing Company or Genealogical.com, genealogy BOOKS are their business. 

Revolutionary War: Strange, Amazing, and Funny Events that Happened During the War.

 

Just spent some delightful time with a new book by Jack Darrell Crowder (title above), published in 2019 by Clearfield Company, a division of Genealogical Publishing Company, which has been offering genealogy books for decades.

Author Crowder gives snippet-stories by chapters of time periods spanning 1765 to 1783. Each little bit has a reference, which I greatly appreciated.  Examples:

"Doctor James Thacher served for eight years in the Revolutionary War. In the diary he kept he wrote about a very lucky soldier: 'A brave soldier received a musket ball in his forehead, observing that it did not penetrate deep, it was imagined that the ball rebounded and fell out; but after several days, on examination, I detected the fall laying flat on the bone, and spread under the skin, which I removed. No one can doubt but he received his wound while facing the enemy, and it is fortunate for the brave fellow that his skull proved too thick for the ball to penetrate." 

"At the time of the Revolutionary War about 20% of the Colonial population of 22-million were black and the number of blacks that fought for the Americans was over 5,000. By 1779, some 15% of the army was black. These men served in an integrated army which would be the last one until the Korean War."

"Once the war began gold and silver coins were scarce. Each state printed its own money to pay for the way and because so much was printed and it was easy to copy, the paper money lost most of its value. When one soldier was paid $80 Continental money, the dollar was worth less than 1/4 of a penny. It was just enough money to pay for breakfast and a bit of rum. Many people called the money 'shin plasters,' because they felt that the only use it had was to bandage a sore leg."

If you'd enjoy reading the entire 145-page book for yourself, click to www.genealogical.com.  Price is $30 but tell them Donna Potter Phillips sends you and ask for your discount. 

Labor Day Weekend Specials

The following genealogy companies have Labor Day weekend special offers:

Got Swedes? ArkivDigital has a discount on their annual subscription (995 SEK or approximately $153 US - regular price is 1195 SEK or approximately $184 US) which ends Sunday, September 1st. You can also purchase shorter or longer subscriptions if you prefer. Even if you currently have a subscription, you can take advantage of this offer. The new subscription will be put on hold until your current subscription expires. With a ArkivDigital subscription you get access to about 43 millions color images (Swedish church records), easy-to-use software to navigate among all the documents, and hopefully exciting stories about your Swedish ancestors. There is no clear time zone listed for when this offer expires, so act fast!

This Labor Day weekend you can save money on some of your favorite genealogy products. From today through 11:59 p.m. EDT, Monday, September 2, 2013, you can order any product available at www.genealogical.com at a discount of 30% off the current selling price of the books(s) or CD(s) of your choice.

To take advantage of this holiday discount, simply add the special code LD13 (caps, no spaces) in the Discount Code box on the "Shipping and Handling" page of the check-out process.

You can use your special LD13 discount code as many times as you like, so long as you place your final order by 11:59 p.m. EDT, Monday, September 2, 2013.

Ancestry.com is offering free access to its U.S. Immigration Collection through 2 September 2013 at http://www.ancestry.com/cs/us/immigration. These include Passenger Lists, Border Crossings and Passports, Citizenship and Naturalization Records, and other records.

In honor of Labor Day, MyHeritage.com is providing free access to the complete US Census collection from August 31 through September 2 - during Labor Day weekend.

You can find out more about your ancestors, and their professions, in hundreds of millions of records in this collection of US Federal Censuses spanning 1790-1940.

Happy Hunting!