The Genealogy Box

By Philip A. Naff

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Now Available on the Internet!!!

About "the Box"

In the beginning there was . . . the box.  Just about every family has such a box, what you might call a genealogy box, where all the old family photos, letters and notes, and all the other little treasured bits and pieces of past times and family history are kept.  The type of storage ranges in type from the old standby, the trusty shoebox, stored in a dark closet somewhere, to the rustic old trunk or chest found in a lot of attics and basements.

The modern genealogist or family historian might at first replace the old shoebox with a Tupperware container or a spiral notebook or two, maybe even a three-ring-binder. But the effectiveness of these methods won't last for long. Soon a file box or two will become necessary, and then even more and more boxes, until visits to your local office supply store will seem to be as numerous as those to the local grocery!

As I have made visits to Kentucky over the years I have sought out, collected, and saved all the information I could that would make my own research go a little more smoothly from home, information that I only wish I had only known about or had access to from the beginning of my research.  And so the genesis of the title of this little newsletter, a little place to tell of all the research tools and methods I have learned about in climbing my own family tree and building a family history with Harrison County records.

Supplement to the Harrison Heritage News - Since 2007 this special supplement, published nearly every other month, has been added to issues of the Harrison Heritage News, the monthly newsletter of the Harrison County Historical Society.  Entitled The Genealogy Box, its goal is to bring to light all of the genealogy and local history resources that are available for research, both online and in person in Cynthiana and at other facilities.  Each issue basically serves as a research guide to one particular topic, in as much as any two printed pages can.  News of recent genealogical events, features at this site, and other items of interest are also included.

With the publication of the tenth issue, now seems a good time to commemorate the event and so all of those which have been published are being posted online for the first time.  Just click on any of the links above to begin your learning experience with The Genealogy Box  (Adobe Reader or other PDF viewer required).

• Issue No. 1 - About "the Box;" What is a Marriage Record?

• Issue No. 2 - Motherhood Statistics, To Find the Degrees, Count the G's; Reading Books Backwards and Taking Notes

• Issue No. 3 - The Last-Known-To-Be-Living Date; Breaking News!; Keeping Up with the In-Laws; "Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Who is that Knocking at the Door?"

• Issue No. 4 - "Free at Last, Free at Last, Genealogy is Free at Last!" (Research resources free to genealogists)

• Issue No. 5 - Just Passing Through (Family history as found in passport records)

• Issue No. 6 - Local Treasures (E.E. Barton Papers and the Pease Abstracts); Climbing Other Branches of the Family Tree; Research...Free for the Asking!

• Issue No. 7 - Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Family Jewels (Research facilities in Harrison County)

• Issue No. 8 - Writing the "1-Hour Autobiography;" Biographies @ HarrisonCountyKy.US (4-page edition)

• Issue No. 9 - What is an Obituary and How Do You Find One?; The 1896 Special Edition of the Cynthiana Democrat & the 1905 Souvenir Supplement of the Log Cabin (4-page edition)

• Issue No. 10 - Farmers Going "Postal" (Rural Free Delivery (R.F.D.))

• Issue No. 11 - Coming soon . . .

If you are interested in researching a family history in or the local history of Harrison County, please visit www.HarrisonCountyKy.US/ for even more information and resources (A sister site for Boone County, Kentucky is currently being developed at www.BooneCountyKy.US/).

And if you are interested in the purchase of marriage record indexes for Harrison County, Kentucky, be sure to look at what is available at www.TheGenealogyGuy.com.

Thanks for visiting, and the best of luck to you in your research!

Philip A. Naff

Indianapolis, Ind.

P.S.  I also highly recommend a visit to the web pages of the Harrison County Historical Society   While there, view the online archives of the Harrison Heritage News.  Information about the society, its publications, and even more about Harrison County can be seen.  Check out the online indexes of their publications before you buy to see what books you may need to add to your genealogy library at home.  Spend just a little time with the Harrison County Historical Society and learn a lot!