I’ve been doing a bit of family history myself so when I saw the title How to Do Everything Genealogy, my first thought was that covering everything in genealogy in a a book was certainly an impossible task and perhaps the author was some sort of charlatan. However, I soon discovered this was not the case and it actually was a very good book.

The author George G. Morgan was well aware of the impossibility of the task. But the series is How to Do Everything and the series is a good one. So George G. Morgan knew that he could not cover everything genealogy is a single book but he does enough to get you started if that is where you are but also enough to help you move forward if you are further along it well. And in my opinion did a great job.

As mentioned here and in the book the task of covering everything genealogy in a single book of reasonable length is impossible. So How to Do Everything Genealogy starts with beginning a genealogy study, progresses quickly to the type of record that are useful, where you can find them, and where you can find more information.

He covers internet records and searches and more traditional genealogy such as visiting the court house. He discusses what you might find and how you might evaluate it. He covers methods for organizing your records (the hundreds of pieces of paper we accumulate) and organizing your research (so you don’t write to request the same record several times). He closes with a chapter on DNA and genealogy.

I read parts of How to Do Everything Genealogy by George G. Morgan carefully and parts I just skimmed either because it did not apply to me or because I would read it carefully later when dealing the type of records discussed in that section.

There is a lot here. Certainly not everything, but there is quite a bit. This is a book that I’m glad is on my reference shelf.