Reviews

REvlEWS GUIDES Getting Started in Genealogy Online. By William Dollarhide. Baltimore, Maryland, Genealogical Publishing Company, 2006. 64 pages, illustration~, forms, paper. $12.95. William Dollarhide's Getting Started in Genealogy Online packs a lot of useful information and strategies into 64 pages, but unavoidably also leaves out a lot. The book provides suggestions and guidelines for those just beginning to explore genealogy or family history, and it lists and briefly discusses many important online resources. There is no index (perhaps defensible for a book this short). Since the book focuses on getting information from the Internet, I would have liked to se~ more treatment of how to organize. and store this information. Mr. Dollarhide thought and wrote about managing genealogical data before the Internet blossomed as a genealogical resource; it would be interesting to see an updated version of his thoughts. For example, suppose that you have just received a scanned image of a record giving data about an ancestor. Should you include this image as data in a lineage-linked program or database, should you file it in a hard drive folder for the relevant family or town, should you print it out and file the printout in a paper file for the relevant family or town, or all of the above? For that matter, if a coherent picture of this family has not yet emerged, would it be useful to enter the data into a program like Clooz? In a related vein, there are forms at the back of Getting Started that are to be reproduced and filled in manually. There is no mention of the fact that the major genealogical programs generate most of these forms automatically, based on the data entered into them. In the chapter entitled "Genealogical Resource Centers in the States, the listing for Pennsylvania (page 44) does not include the websites of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (www.genpa.org/) nor the Pennsylvania Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (www.carnegielibrary.org/locations/pennsylvania/). Readers should note that two important projects digitizing books (including family and local histories) probably didn't receive substantial publicity until Getting Started was already in press: Google Books (books.google.com/) and Brigham Young University's Family History Archives (www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/). Reviewed by Don C. Stone 382 Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 4-4(2006) 2006 383 Reviews Genealogical Writing in the 21st Century: A Guide to Regi ter Style and More, Second Edition. Edited by Michael J. Leclerc and Henry B. Hoff. Boston; ew England Historic Genealogical ociety, 2006. xv plus 130 pages, appendix, bibliography, inde~ paper. $11.95. At first glance, the content of this edition appears to be similar to the fir t dition, but as tated in the preface, "the existing chapters were reviewed and updated to reflect current practice ." Some "dated" illustrations have been revised, and new chapters added Chapter One provides excellent direction for publishing a Family History that will be read by your relatives rather than shelved because the content is too overwhelming. Genealogists interested in creating their own website should pay particular attention to the end of Chapter Four for recommendation of "user-friendly books" that may be of assistance. Major revisions to the Second Edition are contained in Chapters Six and Seven. They are instructional and well-documented, and the illustrations are dear and informative. The Appendix has been updated and expanded and now includes commonly used symbols and geographical abbreviations. Reviewed by Sylvia F. Wilki'ns ABSTRACTS Trinity Lutheran Church Records, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Volume 4, 1797-1810. Translated and edited by Debra D. Smith and Frederick S. Weiser. Apollo, Pennsylvania, Closson Press, 2006. v+360 pages, index, hardbound. $29.95. Smith and Weiser continue with their excellent publication of the registers kept by Pastor Gotthielf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg from 1780 to 1815. It is refreshing to see Pennsylvania abstracts that don't stop at the year 1800, but continue through to the end of the registers (an additional volume is planned). The researcher is strongly advised to read the introduction to this volume, plus the introduction to earlier volumes. Th baptisms recorded here are not only for the children of Lutheran parents, but for any child brought to Muhlenberg for baptism. Marriage only occasionally include additional information such as residence, single or widowe~ color, witness-or if the couple did not give Muhlenberg the expected honorarium. For burial , he typically recorded the place of burial, age at death, and cause of death. An explanation of the choices made in translating these causes is given in the introduction. In addition to the baptisms, marriages 1 and burials, the book includes two tables of communicants and confirmands (both limited to members only, annotated with codes that sometimes baffled even the editors). 384 Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 44 FAMILYHISTORIES Beltzhoover. Gayle 0. Kamp and Deanna Thomas Oklepek. Bloomington, Indiana, AuthorHouse, 2006. xix+ 189 pages, index, paper. $17.99. The Beltzhoover family is fortunate in that they were recorded in a published Auswanderung list that was then indexed in a Filby passengerlist volume. The presentation of the research is confusing to follow, but Christian Melchior Beltzhuber was born in 1716 in Metterzimmern (near Bietigheim, Neckarkreis), son of Hans Jerg Beltzhuber and Anna Barbara Staigers. TheAuswanderung list included the information that the couple had married in Schnaitheim, some distance away. One child was born there, then they returned to Metterzimmern. The authors apparently did not see the Picton Press edition of Strassburger and Hinke since they do not mention Melcheor Beltzhuber's 1752 signature (2:583), which descendants might like to see. ·The family left records in Hagarstown, Maryland, and York and Cumberland counties, Pennsylvania, before settling in Pittsburgh, where their name is applied to a section south of the city. Descendants in male and some female lines are given through the late twentieth century. Additionally, the authors have included several pages describing those Beltzhoovers they were unable to connect to the family. There are citations, but not for every fact. Citations are. nonstandard and incomplete, sometimes given in text, usually grouped at the end of the paragraph; researchers are advised to verify sources. ORDERING INFORMATION AUTHORHOUSE 1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 2000, Bloomington, IN 47403 Phone: 800-839-8640 www.authorhouse.com Internet: CLOSSON PRESS 257 Delilah Street, Apollo, PA 15613-1933 Phone: 724-337-4482 Internet: www.clossonpress.com GENEALOGICALPUBLISHING COMPANY 3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 260, Baltimore, MD 21211 Phone: 800-296-6687 Fax: 410-752-8492 Internet: www.genealogical.com NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICALSOCIETY order from PICTON PRESS PO Box 250, Rockport, ME 04856-0250 Phone: 207-236-6565 Fax: 207-236-6713 www.pictonpress.com Internet: