Book Review: “The Sleuth Book for Genealogists”

For those who have been genealogists for many years, the name of Emily Anne Croom is recognizable. With books like “Unpuzzling Your Past” and “The Genealogist’s Companion & Sourcebook,” she has written several genealogical library fundamentals.

Although first published in 2000, this latest publishing of “The Sleuth Book for Genealogists” is as valuable to genealogists as it was when it was first published. The difference between the two versions is that the 2008 version is printed on thinner paper and has an errata notice about unavailability of the catalog and rental program of Heritage Quest.

While the book’s content has not changed, the concepts taught in the book are absolutely timeless; they do not rely on a current set of links to websites. In fact, taking a step back from clicking on links can encourage genealogists to develop skills and approaches used by detectives to locate and analyze data about their ancestors.

The hunt is on for the “missing persons” who are our ancestors, guided by quotes from famous literary detectives and real people. This is a full-strength guide to genealogical research, written in an approachable manner that even a beginning genealogist can appreciate. The book takes genealogists through important concepts in research, potentially brick wall-busting strategies and examples. It contains important topics, such as census research, but digs into deeds and the complications of dates. One appendix reviews the basics of genealogical studies, while the other appendix contains a guide to documentation that steers a genealogist through the important task of citing sources with extensive examples. Although the book is thorough, the information in it is not presented at the potentially intimidating depth of other comprehensive books about genealogical research.

From planning, through a variety of techniques including cluster research, to reporting results, this book walks you through the research process. An important part of meaningful research is asking questions, and throughout the process a genealogist is presented with sets of meaningful questions to ask at each stage of solving a mystery. The book also stimulates the critical thinking process by covering what a genealogist can do with what is found, no matter how it is found.

Three thorough case studies are presented in the book to illustrate the research methodology. Each begins with an inventory of what was known prior to beginning the research, then shows the questions that were asked, how they were answered and what was learned at each step. Genealogists can follow along with Ms. Croom investigating these cases to experience the process, think about the questions that should be asked and how to organize, interpret and analyze the results of each step. After studying this book, genealogists can take what they have learned and apply it to their own research problems.  

For all the useful content in this book, there is some matter that could benefit from being updated. The idea that a computer is only useful in genealogy for storage and presentation of results is outdated. The use of computers to support genealogical research has been transformed by valuable software programs written to organize and analyze data. In addition to family tree building computer programs, even common applications such as word processing and spreadsheets programs are useful to a researcher. Sadly, for newer genealogists, an anecdote about using Soundex codes to look up a census entry may not be meaningful in this age of online databases.

I was relatively new to genealogy when I read the first version of this book, and rereading it reminded me of the many good practices that I still follow in my own research. It was good to review those example questions to ask at each point of the research process. It would be great to have an automated system with this knowledge that would help me throughout my research activities, but until that happens, I am happy to have this book on a nearby shelf.

“The Sleuth Book for Genealogists” by Emily Anne Croom is available from the Genealogical Publishing Company.