George G. Morgan - How to Do Everything Genealogy

Second Edition

George G. Morgan

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ISBN: 978-0-07-162535-7

MHID: 0-07-162535-6

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To the memories of three of my dearest friends, Melvin Orval Brown, Shirley Ruth Neprasch Brown, and Thomas Norman Ryder. While they have passed on and are missed, they have left this world and the genealogical community a richer place.

George G. Morgan is an internationally recognized genealogical expert, lecturer, and consultant. He is president of Aha! Seminars, Inc., a Florida-based company providing continuing education to librarians in the United States and genealogy presentations to societies in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. He also has led genealogy tours to the United Kingdom and has spoken on several genealogy cruises.

He is a prolific author of eight books, including the first and second editions of The Official Guide to Ancestry.com (Ancestry Publishing), and the first and second editions of this book. He has written literally hundreds of magazine, journal, and online articles on the subject of genealogy. He currently writes online for Eastmans Online Genealogy Newsletter each week, for Digital Genealogist, and has written scores of articles articles for the Ancestry.com website. He is a frequent writer for Ancestry Magazine, Evertons Genealogical Helper, Family Chronicle, Internet Genealogy, Discovering Your Family History, Family Tree Magazine, the FGS FORUM, the Association for Professional Genealogists Quarterly, and others.

George is the co-host, with his partner Drew Smith, of The Genealogy GuysSM Podcast, the longest-running genealogy podcast in the world, published each week at http://genealogyguys.com . The two also have appeared in the RootsTelevision series Down Under: Florida at www.rootstelevision.com .

He is the past president of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors (ISFHWE) and was a director on the board of the Genealogical Speakers Guild. He currently serves as a director for the Florida Genealogical Society in Tampa and as the Public Relations/Publicity Director of the Florida State Genealogical Society. He belongs to more than a dozen other societies in the United States and the United Kingdom.

George has won a number of esteemed awards, including the Genealogy Outstanding Achievement Award and the Presidents Citation from the Florida State Genealogical Society, the Award of Merit from the Federation of Genealogical Societies, and an Excellence in Writing Award from ISFHWE, among others.

He lives in Citrus Park, Florida, a suburb of Tampa.

Drew Smith, MLS, is a librarian with the University of South Florida in Tampa, and a nationally known genealogy writer and speaker. He is the author of a regular column for Digital Genealogist magazine, and is the editor of the Federation of Genealogical Societies Voice newsletter. He also is the author of a new book, Social Networking for Genealogists (Genealogical Publishing Company). Since it began in September 2005, he has co-hosted the weekly The Genealogy GuysSM Podcast with George G. Morgan. He is a Director of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, and President of the Florida Genealogical Society of Tampa.

Creating a book is no easy task. It takes dedicated people with talent and specific skills to bring a written work to fruition. Id like to mention a few of the people who have made this book all that it is.

First, let me extend my sincere thanks to Megg Morin, acquisitions editor at McGraw-Hill. We have had the pleasure of working on both editions of this book to date, and Meggs enthusiasm, humor, and professionalism made the hard work worth every minute.